Are We Experiencing a Fungal Renaissance?
Fungus, a tasty treat on your next dish or maybe a brain altering zombie creating infection taking over the world. No matter how you see fungi, they seem to be taking over our popular media. This begs the question, what is it about fungi that have us so enraptured?
photo of Pleated Inkcap mushroom from my raised bed garden. We have had a lot of rain lately which has increased the number of mushrooms.
A depiction of the Mycelial space network from Star Trek Discovery
The recent release of Star Trek Discovery takes a new crew of space explorers on a journey through the space mycelium. Most all fungi on earth have a mycelium, its the connection of fibers underground. The largest mycelium ever recorded spans for miles under a famous pacific northwest city. The true size of it is unknown, because its underground and hard to record. These mycelium spread nutrients, information and who knows what else between plants, itself, and other fungal species. The introduction of a space mycelium with an infinite number of connections that can be harnessed as a tool for space travel was inspired by the real mycelium which exists under our soil. With so much unknown about space itself, maybe a space mycelium isn't too far off from reality.
Movie cover of Netflix’s Fantastic Fungi
If space fungus isn’t your cup of tea, you could dive into the world of real life fungi with the recent (4 years ago) film release of Fantastic Fungi. This film the enters the world of fungi from food all the way to its healing properties. While it may seem that this film and Star Trek Discovery have nothing in common, they actually do. Paul Stamets is the scientist behind Fantastic fungi, and he is the inspiration for the Star Trek character who is named after him. In fact much of the terminology around fungi in Star Trek is taken right from Paul’s lectures and research. The space fungi connection can really be felt by the end of the Fantastic Fungi film where Paul begins to dive into the psychedelic world of fungi and how it can save the world and expand your universe.
Image of Cordyceps from the HBO show The Last of Us
Just a step beyond brain altering fungi are brain-controlling-fungi from the HBO show The Last of Us. These fungi are based on the real life species Cordyceps which infects ants. Unlike the show species, the the real species causes ants to walk away from their home and find a cool damp place to colonize a new location for the fungus. The show species shared some characteristics of the real world cordyceps, causing erratic behavior, changing the physical appearance of the victim and eventually death. Once the HBO cordyceps victims died they were integrated into the mycelial network and could send signals about potential threats to other batches of fungus in the city. The wildly popular show is far from reality but maybe the success is more due to the dreamy lead actor rather than its realistic fungus depiction.
With all the rain we have been having in Austin, I have also trained my eye on fungus. They appear to be popping up all around my garden. The above photos are from some of my hikes, my backyard, and strangely a fungus growing directly on my driveway. No matter how you feel about our fungal cousins, it appears that Hollywood has trained its eye on these decomposers. Fungi share more characteristics with us than they do with plants, but there is still so much about them that is unknown. They exist primarily underground, and send up the mushroom caps when they are ready to reproduce. They play a critical role in plant health and their demise from industrial agriculture may be able to explain much of our difficulty in growing certain foods. One thing is for sure, you can expect more fungi media in the near future.