Super shrooms.These days, for better or worse, it seems that the most effective way to protect something is to explain it in terms that we can all relate to and prove its value to humanity. Paul Stamets does both in Mycelium mycelium Mass of branched, tubular filaments (hyphae) of fungi (see fungus) that penetrate soil, wood, and other organic matter. The mycelium makes up the thallus (undifferentiated body) of a typical fungus. Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World (Ten Speed Press, $35). He describes the vast, largely subterranean networks of mycelia as "nature's Internet," and champions fungi's potential to remediate toxic oil spills, filter pathogens from water, counteract deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. , yield better crops, and improve public health. Penicillin, it's clear, was only the tip of the, er, mycelium. Stamets' appreciation for the mycological mycological pertaining to or arising from mycology. world is not only professional (he's been studying it for more than 30 years); it's also clearly personal. When carpenter ants threatened to destroy his house, Stamets used a culture of Metarhizium as a natural pesticide. When cattle feces contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. an inlet near his home, his "mycofilter" rid the water of coliform bacteria coliform bacteria Rod-shaped bacteria usually found in the intestinal tracts of animals, including humans. Coliform bacteria do not require but can use oxygen, and they do not form spores. They produce acid and gas from the fermentation of lactose sugar. . The book is packed with practical details and more than 300 color photos of mushrooms and the mycophiliacs who work with them. Stamets also warns, "Our relatively sudden rise as a destructive species is stressing the fungal recycling systems of nature." Mushrooms can only save the world, it seems, if we decide to save them. |
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