science of mushrooms and fungi
Slime Molds Are Not Actually Fungi (And Why That Matters) Single-celled organisms that solve mazes, redesign subway systems, and learn without brains. For 150 years they were classified with fungi. DNA evidence showed they are not even close. Amoebozoa, not Fungi No Brain, Still Learns Reclassified 1990s If you have been reading the science articles…
What Is Mold, Really? The Fungi You Find in Your Home Mold is just fungi doing their normal job in a place we do not want them. The biology is simple. The consumer discourse around it is almost never accurate. Here is what the science actually says. Evidence-Based CDC, EPA, WHO sources No fearmongering Quick…
There is a fungus known as Armillaria in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon that covers 3.7 square miles of ground. That number does not fully land until you sit with it. Three point seven square miles. That is bigger than Central Park. Bigger than the entire city of Vatican City. Bigger than most…
If you have read anything else on this site, you have seen me mention beta-glucans. I use them as the main measuring stick for whether a mushroom supplement is worth buying. I check for them on every label. I reference them in every brand comparison. And if you are like most people, you nodded along…
The mushroom you see above ground is not really the organism. It is more like an apple on a tree, a temporary fruiting structure produced by something much larger and longer-lived living beneath the surface. The actual organism is the mycelium, a vast network of thread-like filaments that can spread through soil, wood, and organic…
Fungi are not plants. They are not animals either. They are their own kingdom entirely, and the biology that puts them there is genuinely strange. Here is the short version: fungi have chitin cell walls instead of cellulose, they digest food outside their bodies, they cannot photosynthesise, and at the molecular level they are more…