Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

I wanted to read this book after watching the Netflix show Fantastic Fungi. Paul is referenced several times as being the mycologist that is running his experiments with strict scientific standards and has had his work peer-reviewed by multiple labs, universities and even large bio-tech firms.

Then I found his TED talk on youtube. It is very interesting the way that mycelium operates in nature and the benefits we can get by processing it and isolating compounds that have wide-ranging benefits from medical treatments to pesticides.

Some of my notes from the book include

a single cubic inch of topsoil contains enough fungal cells to stretch more than 8 miles if placed end to end. I calculate that every footstep I take impacts more than 300 miles of mycelium.

Ganodermas, Phaeolus schweinitzii, and the rare Bridgeoporus nobilissimus. Their mycelia form primordia that envelop sticks and twigs as they grow.

Mushrooms can be placed in 4 basic categories: saprophytic, parasitic, mycorrhizal, and endophytic, depending upon how they nourish themselves. However, exceptions abound, since some species employ more than one strategy, making them difficult to categorize.

One of the most exciting discoveries in the field of mycology is that the mycorrhizae can transport nutrients to trees of different species. One mushroom species can connect many acres of a forest in a continuous network of cells.

jointly through the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a coordinated effort to combat potentially weaponized viruses. The genome of this species may give rise to novel antivirals and hence should be protected. Although the mushrooms were not active when boiled in water, specially prepared extracts from living mycelium showed potent activity against vaccinia pox and cowpox viruses

More recently, derivatives of the gypsy mushroom (Cortinarius caperatus) were discovered by Piraino and Brandt (1999) to inhibit the replication and spread of varicella zoster (the shingles virus)

When combined with bunker C oil, the same petrochemical spilled by the Exxon Valdez tanker in Alaska, 97 percent of the oil’s polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) degraded after 8 weeks. However, if we first sterilized the alder chips before mixing them into the spawn, only 65 percent of the PAHs were degraded. For a control, we omitted the spawn and used unsterilized chips, which caused the PAHs to decline only 38 percent (Thomas et al. 1999).

I initiated a series of research trials at Texas A&M University’s Entomology Department under the guidance of Dr. Roger Gold. These trials showed that Formosan termites (Coptotermes formosanus), eastern subterranean termites (Reticulitermes flavipes), and fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) were attracted to the mycelium, fed upon it, and carried fragments back to the nest. In 2 to 3 weeks, they died from fungal infection. In choice tests, termites preferred the mycelium to wood, and in one alarming example fire ant workers enthroned the queen on a bed of mycelium

Here is the LINK to the AMAZON Book