Tag

Fungi

All articles tagged with #fungi

science-and-environment1 month ago•6 min saved

Galaxies to Salmon: A Wednesday of Bright Science Wins

A biweekly roundup of uplifting science and nature stories: NASA's Chandra reveals 16 new X-ray galaxy images in a galactic gallery; California reports a record 30,000 coho salmon returning to its rivers; Ripley’s Aquarium Myrtle Beach celebrates a penguin chick boom; coconut husk fungi show potential to biodegrade sunscreen and plastics; FDA approves daraxonrasib, a KRAS-inhibiting drug, doubling lifespan for some pancreatic cancer patients.

via Daily Kos|

#astronomy #fungi #kras-inhibitors

technology1 month ago•12 min saved

Fungi-Grown Textiles Hint at Self-Healing Garments

A Science Advances paper demonstrates a platform for living textiles built from Cordyceps militaris sandwiched between films, augmented with pigment-producing Saccharomyces cerevisiae and melanized Aspergillus niger to enable UV blocking and environment-responsive color. While promising for self-healing fabrics, the work is early-stage and has not yet addressed washability, abrasion resistance, breathability, or wearer comfort, and it’s framed as a foundation for future research (with additional context from De Zeen).

via Hackaday|

#cordyceps-militaris #engineered-living-materials #fungi

science1 month ago•6 min saved

Tiny-people visions traced to a mushroom's novel psychedelic

Edible mushroom Lanmaoa asiatica reportedly triggers vivid lilliputian visions (3–30 cm tall) that interact with the physical world. Researchers doubt cultural conditioning explains the effect and suspect a new psychedelic compound is involved; the mushroom was identified via DNA sequencing by University of Utah doctoral student Colin Domnauer, and the team plans to isolate and characterize the compound.

via Boing Boing|

#fungi #hallucinations #lanmaoa-asiatica

science1 month ago•7 min saved

Scientists Uncover Why Fairy Ring Mushrooms Circle the Forest Floor

Swedish researchers mapped fairy rings of Marasmius oreades, showing the underground mycelium forms a ring with DNA concentrated at the outer edge and experiments supporting a transient-escape mechanism that drives outward growth; the work in Uppsala and published in Royal Society Open Science (2026) remains preliminary but sheds light on how these circular fungal patterns form.

via ScienceAlert|

#fairy-rings #fungi #marasmius-oreades

science1 month ago•3 min saved

The Age of Fungi Remains an Open Question

Fungi challenge aging conventions because they grow as indeterminate, modular mycelial networks, making it unclear when a fungus begins, ends, or how old it is across species. A Trends in Microbiology paper proposes starting points like genetic tracking, mycelial genomics, and future technologies (e.g., fungi-on-a-chip) to begin measuring fungal age and guide systematic study.

via Gizmodo|

#aging #fungi #genomics

environment2 months ago•5 min saved

Deep Underground Jungle Reveals Hidden Carbon Cycle

University of Michigan researchers sampled water from 500 meters below ground and identified 689 fungal species (13 new), plus tardigrades and worms, in a thriving deep subterranean ecosystem that may influence carbon release and storage in shale, challenging the assumption that deep subsurface carbon is inert and prompting a rethink of carbon cycling models.

via Futura, le média qui explore le monde|

#carbon-cycle #carbon-storage #deep-subsurface

science2 months ago•8 min saved

Hidden Deep: Fungi and Tardigrades Thrive in the Antrim Shale's Subsurface

Scientists analyzing water pumped from the Antrim Shale gas field uncovered a surprisingly rich subterranean ecosystem, including 689 fungal species (13 potentially new), rotifers, worms, tardigrades and other organisms. Fungi from classes Agaricomycetes and Dothideomycetes appear to metabolize hard-to-digest carbon, suggesting a significant role in subsurface carbon cycling. The oxygen conditions are unclear due to sampling methods, but the community has likely been isolated for millennia since the Late Pleistocene. Human extraction and biocides threaten these habitats, highlighting their biodiversity and potential impact on carbon storage models.

via ScienceAlert|

#antrim-shale #carbon-cycling #deep-subsurface

science2 months ago•49 min saved

Underground Michigan blooms with fungi, tardigrades, and tiny worms

A University of Michigan study of water brought up from the Antrim Shale beneath Michigan found surprisingly rich life in deep underground groundwater: one drop contained about 250 fungal cells and 689 fungal species (13 new), plus tardigrades (water bears) and tiny segmented worms, indicating an active underground food web and potential importance for Earth's carbon cycle. Isotope data suggest the ancient water last contacted surface about 11,000 years ago, and researchers are cultivating deep-subsurface fungi and developing tools to study these hidden ecosystems further.

via Yahoo|

#antrim-shale #carbon-cycle #deep-subsurface

biology2 months ago•16 min saved

Deep Beneath the Great Lakes, a Hidden World of Fungi and Tardigrades Emerges

Researchers drilling into the Antrim Shale beneath the Great Lakes found a vibrant underground ecosystem: 689 fungal species (including 13 new ones) alongside tardigrades and worms, forming a subterranean food web fed by ancient organic matter. Isotopic dating links the water to the Ice Age, last in contact with surface about 11,000 years ago, suggesting deep subsurface biodiversity may be underestimated and could influence carbon cycling.

via Gizmodo|

#biology #fungi #great-lakes

science2 months ago•15 min saved

Michigan's Deep Subsurface Blooms with 689 Fungal Species from 11,000-Year-Old Water

A University of Michigan team found 689 fungal species living in water 1,640 feet beneath Michigan, where the liquid dates back to 11,000 years ago as glacial melt carried surface organisms into the Antrim Shale; the underground ecosystem also hosts tardigrades and worms and may reshape understanding of carbon cycling and potential environmental cleanup applications.

via The Times of India|

#antrim-shale #carbon-cycling #deep-subsurface

science3 months ago•5 min saved

First Global Map Reveals Earth's Hidden Fungal Highway

A global team mapped the underground mycorrhizal network, estimating about 110 quadrillion kilometers of fungal filaments and 300 megatons of carbon; these networks transfer roughly 4 billion tonnes of CO2 into soil each year (about 11% of human-emitted CO2) and support ~70% of plant species. The map, produced from 322 studies and 16,000 soil samples using machine learning and advanced imaging, shows that natural ecosystems host denser networks than agricultural lands, with grasslands holding a large share of biomass. Widespread habitat loss could weaken soil carbon storage and nutrient cycling, highlighting fungi as a planetary circulatory system.

via WIRED|

#climate-change #ecology #fungi

science3 months ago•7 min saved

Chernobyl’s Black Fungus May Harvest Radiation for Energy

A dark melanized fungus, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, thriving inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone, may exploit ionizing radiation for energy via a proposed radiosynthesis process powered by melanin. While the fungus grows better in radiation and has shown to attenuate radiation in an ISS exposure test, scientists have not proven a real energy-harvesting mechanism or carbon fixation, and the phenomenon is not universal among melanized fungi.

via ScienceAlert|

#chernobyl #fungi #melanin

science3 months ago•65 min saved

Multicellularity Expands Microbial Chemical Repertoires

A new study shows that the evolution of multicellularity in microbes is closely linked to large expansions in specialized metabolite production. Unicellular lineages generally harbor few biosynthetic gene clusters, whereas multicellular groups in bacteria (Cyanobacteriota, Myxococcota, Actinomycetota) and fungi (Pezizomycotina, Agaricomycetes) exhibit ancestral increases in BGC content alongside multicellular development and self-recognition traits. These lineages also harbor enriched carbohydrate-active enzymes, suggesting energy from complex catabolic processes fuels metabolite production, aligning with a public-goods framework and offering a path for discovering novel antimicrobial compounds while illuminating major evolutionary transitions.

via Nature|

#actinomycetota #biosyntheticgeneclusters #fungi

environment3 months ago•39 min saved

Global map reveals Earth’s hidden fungal highways are densest beneath wild grasslands

Researchers mapped the world’s underground mycorrhizal network, estimating about 68 quadrillion miles (110 quadrillion km) of fungal hyphae that connect around 70% of Earth’s plants. The network boosts plant access to water, nutrients, and soil carbon exchange, and it is densest under wild grasslands rather than rainforests. Farmland shows about half the density, highlighting how agricultural practices affect these hidden connections and offering new avenues for conservation and farming methods that protect this vast, climate-relevant web.

via Earth.com|

#environment #fungi #grasslands

science3 months ago•5 min saved

Desert Moss Hides Fungal Partners Inside Its Tissues

UC Riverside researchers found fungi inside desert moss tissues, including arbuscule-like structures, suggesting a potential mycorrhizal relationship not previously documented in mosses; if confirmed, it could reshape ideas about moss biology and the early evolution of land plants, with implications for dryland restoration—though a true symbiosis has not yet been proven.

via SciTechDaily|

#biocrusts #desert #fungi