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Tech NewsThe Game of Thrones Intro Recreated with Slime Mold Is Glorious
Slime molds and fungi might not rank high on anyone’s list of favorite organisms, but there is a compelling beauty in their growth patterns. And now Transcend Rules has taken “slimeography” to a whole new level, setting those patterns to the Game of Thrones theme music. It might just be the solace fans crave after … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Weed Takes Out Other Plants by Attacking Their “Gut Bacteria”
You need bacteria to help you digest your food and go about your day. It turns out that plants have their own version of this. And one weed is driving out the competition by attacking the gut bacteria of other species. Without bacteria, we’d need a great deal more food to get by. Although humans … Continued
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Tech News
Why Does This Ice Look Exactly Like Hair
Fungi are some of the weirdest and most fascinating creatures on Earth, but they’ve really outdone themselves with this one: Hair ice. According to new research, the icy hair-sculptures that crop up overnight in forests before melting away in the sun have fungal fingerprints all over them. Hair ice is this totally weird stuff people … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
io9
Oh Crap, Fungus Can Grow In Your Brain
Here’s a good reason not to get out of bed. A common fungus can sometimes get snorted up into your nose, contaminate your blood vessels, and grow in your eyes and your brain. Feel like going outside? I didn’t think so. Above is a picture of the spore of a group of fungi called Mucoromycotina. … Continued
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io9Hypnotic Timelapse Videos Show A Face Of Mother Nature We Rarely See
We don’t usually get to witness the movements of plants and fungi, which happen so slowly that we don’t notice it with our naked eyes. But these timelapse videos speed up the process, letting us appreciate the sometimes graceful growing and dying of these organisms. Spring Awakening, shot in Poland by Artur Homan Life cycle … Continued
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io9
What Would Happen If All The Earth’s Microbes Suddenly Disappeared?
It’s generally agreed that life on this planet would not be possible if it weren’t for microbes. In a fascinating thought experiment, a pair of biologists scrutinized this assumption to find out. As their paper makes clear, a microbe-free world would be a strange place, indeed. Top image: Nutrient rich waters off Patagonia in South … Continued
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io9
The Solution to Disposable Diaper Waste Is Apparently Mushrooms
Disposable diapers are made to be super-absorbend and super-durable — all the better for handling the all the waste produced by a human baby. All the worse for the environment because the diapers last hundreds of years in landfills. But a new project cut waste by using the diapers to grow mushrooms. Project leader Rosa … Continued
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io9
Is Groot A Plant, An Animal, Or A Fungus?
Groot’s response to the question would probably be a simple “I am Groot!”, but does the evidence suggest that Groot is a plant, an animal, or perhaps a fungus? After reading this post on the real plants that could have evolved into Groot, a discussion began about what kingdom Groot would really best fit into … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Mushrooms Can Mine the Gold From Your Old Cellphones
Crack open your dumb old phone, and you’ll find lots of circuits and no lack of precious metals. “In 100,000 cell phones, it’s estimated that there is 2.4 kilograms of gold, more than 900 kilograms of copper, 25 kilograms of silver, and more,” according to Motherboard. Could a safer and and cheaper method of recovering … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsUsing a 3D Scanner To Explore The Labyrinths of Soil Beneath Our Feet
Researchers at Scotland’s Abertay University are getting a brand new look at the seemingly nondescript world hidden in plain sight—the soil beneath our feet. Using computed tomography—an imaging technique that takes virtual slices of a subject using X-rays—computer modeling, and a 3-D scanner, the team is revealing the previously hidden complex structures of soil. They … Continued
Txchnologist -
Tech News
Why a Small Pennsylvania Town Is the Mushroom Capital of the World
To grow mushrooms is to let things rot, so something’s a lot of things are rotten in the state of Pennsylvania. The Atlantic’s deep dive into the dark side of truffles last week got us wondering about their more prosaic cousins: the portobellos and white buttons you find shrink-wrapped at the supermarket. We’ve also seen … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
io9Meet the Scientist Who Is Solving the Mystery of Zombie Ants
Throughout the tropical forests of the world, there’s a parasitic fungus that turns unwitting ants into “zombies.” Just how the fungus is able to control the brains of its insect slaves is unknown, but Charissa de Bekker, a post-doctoral researcher at Penn State University, is determined to find out. We caught up with de Bekker … Continued
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io9
Here’s why wine snobs should probably be called bacteria snobs
Differences in wine quality between vineyards have long been attributed to processing techniques and seasonal variation. But research now suggests that regional differences between wines are shaped by microbes — specifically, fungi and bacteria. Cultivating certain grape microbes may actually improve wine flavor. Without yeasts (fungi) and bacteria, wine wouldn’t be possible. These hungry microorganisms … Continued
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io9
When forests glow green in the night
There are certain times when the woods begin to glow. Sometimes they glow so much that people call the Park Service and ask them to send a hazmat team. What they’re actually seeing is foxfire. And although we know how it happens, we don’t know exactly why. The picture above is a lovely example of … Continued
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Tech News
Surprised Scientists Find Lifeforms Six Miles Above Earth’s Surface
For the first time, scientists have found lifeforms where nobody thought it was possible: floating in the troposphere, the slice of the atmosphere approximately four to six miles (eight to 15 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. And not just a tiny few, but lot: 20% of every particle in that atmospheric layer are living organisms. This … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsHow Mushrooms Will Solve the Worlds’ Biggest Problems
Mushrooms may be most famous for their pizza prowess and psychedelic strains, but Paul Stamets, renowned mycologist and mushroom enthusiast, has much loftier visions for everyone’s favorite fungi. He believes that the solution to some of the world’s biggest problems lies in mushroom farming. More specifically he posits that—mycelium, the tight network of filaments out … Continued
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io9
These pretty mushrooms can cure cancer — if they don’t kill you in the process
Unfortunately, those properties are deadly. These are the jack-o-lantern mushrooms, and their gills have a faint, but beautiful, bioluminescence. The mushrooms are intriguing in theory, but they’re lethal when it comes to actual practice. This looks like a scene from Fantasia, but it’s an actual mushroom. Omphalotus olearius, or the jack-o-lantern mushroom, grows on hard … Continued
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io9
To help clean up toxic mine water, let fungi bloom
In order to render mine water a whole lot less toxic, the key could be letting a fungus bloom. Some fungi produce a superoxide when they grow, which is instrumental in cleaning up polluting metals. This superoxide reacts with locally available Magnesium(II), and is oxidized to Mn(III) or Mn(IV), which in turn suck up the … Continued
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io9
10 Ways the Human Microbiome Project Could Change the Future of Science and Medicine
When astronomers talk about the number of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, they talk in terms of hundreds of billions. When microbiologists talk about the Human Microbiome — the bacteria, viruses and fungi living in and on each of our bodies — they talk in terms of hundreds of trillions. Earlier this month, the … Continued
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Tech News
Dishwashers Are Trying to Kill Us
Dishwashers are boss at cleaning dishes without getting your hands wet. They’re also a perfect home—because of their hot and moist temperature—for black yeast to grow. Black yeast, as you can probably imagine, is very not good. Black yeast is rarely found in nature but apparently thrives on the rubber lining of dishwashers. Though dishwashers … Continued
By Casey Chan