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Zusammenfassung von Entangled Life

Name: Entangled Life
Rating: 4.8 (133 reviews)
Author: Merlin Sheldrake

Merlin Sheldrake

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape Our Futures

4.8 (133 Bewertungen)

26 Min.

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Pflanzen & Bäume Naturwissenschaft

Inhaltsübersicht

Entangled Life
in 8 Kernaussagen verstehen

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Kernaussage 1 von 8

What’s in it for me? Explore the strange and mysterious world of fungi.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “fungi?” Almost assuredly, it’s the mushroom, an organism both reviled and revered around the world. But fungi are so much more.

At this moment, fungi are navigating the dense labyrinths of soil underneath our feet. They are devouring countless materials. They are providing cures for deadly illnesses, and, at the same time, decimating some of humanity’s most important crops.

Fungi play a vital role in life on Earth – and yet they’re a neglected kingdom, less frequently studied than animals or plants. These blinks place fungi at center stage as we explore their world and the relationships they’ve cultivated over millions of years.

Along the way, you’ll find out

how fungi can find their way around Tokyo;
what happens when a fungus possesses an ant; and
whether fungi are capitalists or socialists.

Fungi challenge our conceptions of intelligence and individuality.

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a deft problem-solver. When faced with a labyrinth, it’s able to compare different courses of action and determine the most efficient way out.

In one experiment, Japanese researchers placed Physarum in petri dishes modeled on the Greater Tokyo area. Oat flakes, which the fungus could use as food, were used to mark out major urban hubs, while harmful bright lights signified obstacles like mountains. After just one day, the slime mold figured out the quickest route among the oat flakes. Remarkably, its network resembled Tokyo’s existing rail system almost identically.

Physarum is able to navigate its surroundings and make decisions despite having no brain or central nervous system. Does that mean it lacks intelligence? Or could it be that Physarum and other fungi do possess intelligence –⁠ just a completely different kind of intelligence from humans?

The key message here is: Fungi challenge our conceptions of intelligence and individuality.

Fungi are a form of network-based life, made up of a collection of thin tubes called hyphae. When hyphae grow, branch, and tangle, they form the dense network known as mycelium. But hyphae also form into fruiting bodies like mushrooms. Slice open a mushroom and you’re looking at the very same material that makes up the rest of the mycelium. Often, the purpose of these fruiting bodies is to disperse reproductive spores.

Sounds pretty simple. But try to answer this question: Are mycelial networks individuals or collectives?

On one hand, we can view each mycelial network as a swarm of hyphal tips. Each tip operates individually; there is no leader or central command center. Yet, at the same time, all hyphal tips are connected to one another –⁠ you can’t dismantle a mycelial network hypha by hypha. Reduce a mycelium to just one thin tube and it can regenerate the entire network. This means mycelium is at once a single entity and a multitude of individuals.

Why might this matter to us humans? After all, it’s easy for us to define our individual selves. We end where our bodies end, right?

Well, not quite. Our bodies contain entire communities of bacteria, microbes, genes, and cells obtained or inherited from disparate sources. Without them, we’d become sick or even die. Perhaps we, like fungi, are living communities, at once individual and collective. And perhaps it’s time we reevaluated our time-honored notions of individuality, autonomy, and self.

Fungi communicate with humans, animals, and plants through scent.

The smell of truffles is intoxicating. It’s heady, pungent, and slightly sweet. Head to a fancy restaurant and you might be lucky enough to have truffles grated over your plate for you –⁠ in exchange for a pretty penny. Thanks to their rarity, two kilograms’ worth of Piedmont white truffles can fetch 12,000 Euros.

For most of the year, truffles exist as underground mycelia. But there comes a time when they must reproduce. They can’t do that underground, where there are no air currents or animals to disperse their spores. So truffles must find a way above ground. For this, they release their signature irresistible aroma –⁠ and soon, animals and humans come to unearth them. Through smell, truffles speak in a language understood by all.

Lichens are living examples of what is biologically possible on Earth.

Very few organisms can withstand the extreme environment of outer space. A few can survive if shielded from the sun’s harmful radiation. One curious organism, however, lives on even when exposed directly to the most dangerous cosmic rays. That organism is lichen.

Lichen can survive in many extreme environments –⁠ not just space. They reside in both scorching deserts and frigid tundras. And they are remarkable in other ways, too –⁠ they can be resuscitated after ten years of dehydration, and some species can live for thousands of years.

Chemicals in fungi have the power to alter human and animal minds.

For a few days of its life, the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis possesses the body of an ant.

Yes, you heard that right. Ophiocordyceps is known as a zombie fungus, for its ability to hijack and control the body of an insect. First, Ophiocordyceps infects a carpenter ant, growing into as much as 40 percent of the ant’s biomass. The ant loses its fear of heights and begins to climb up a nearby plant. Eventually, the fungus forces the ant to clamp its jaws onto the plant’s stem. Mycelium begin to grow from the ant’s feet and head, from which bursts a stalk. The stalk releases spores that fall down to ants passing below. And so the cycle continues.

Mycorrhizal relationships are the bedrock of life on Earth.

Six hundred million years ago, the world was a very different place. The land was barren and scorched –⁠ no plants or trees yet existed. Temperatures fluctuated rapidly from one extreme to another.

Compared to the warm, shallow waters in which all kinds of organisms could flourish, land was downright hostile. But if you were a photosynthetic organism, it did offer some pretty big incentives. For one, you could take in direct sunlight, unfiltered by water. And for another, carbon dioxide –⁠ plant food –⁠ was plentiful.

Fungi, plants, bacteria, and trees are connected via “wood wide webs.

The Pacific Northwest is home to lush, green forests. But among the thickets of vibrant emerald, in the shadiest parts of the forest, small patches of stark white plants can be found pushing up from the ground.

These plants, known as “ghost pipes,” are the species Monotropa uniflora. Unlike most plants, they don’t have the ability to photosynthesize –⁠ and thus they have no leaves or green coloring. But if they can’t photosynthesize, how do they survive?

The way we perceive fungi reveals a lot about us.

You might be familiar with Carl Linnaeus’s famous system of taxonomy, which sorts organisms into different categories. But did you know it was only designed to classify plants and animals? Fungi, it turns out, are neither. Yet fungi weren’t assigned to their own distinct kingdom until the mid-1960s.

Given their many strange and unique genetic traits, fungi often defy classification. Despite this, humans are constantly trying to shoehorn them into categories we ourselves invented. Might there be a better way to make sense of fungi?

Fungi offer potential solutions to environmental problems.

It’s no secret that fungi have voracious appetites –⁠ some more so than others.

Pleurotus mycelium, which fruits into edible oyster mushrooms, is especially omnivorous. If presented with a smorgasbord of used diapers, for instance, Pleurotus will dine happily. In one experiment, Pleurotus was able to reduce a collection of diapers to 15 percent of its original mass in two months.

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Worum geht es in Entangled Life?

Entangled Life (2020) ushers us into the vast, hidden world of fungi. In it, we follow molds, yeasts, lichens, and many other fungi as they creep through the soil, intoxicate us with their scent, and induce mesmerizing visions. With a change in perspective, we can begin to see the world from a more fungal point of view –⁠ and understand how these organisms might be the key to our future survival.

Bestes Zitat aus Entangled Life

A ripe truffle broadcasts an unambiguous summons in chemical lingua franca, a pop scent with mass appeal . . . .

—Merlin Sheldrake

Wer Entangled Life lesen sollte

Plant lovers and amateur naturalists
Fans of nature shows and documentaries
People who enjoy looking at the world from different perspectives

Über den Autor

Merlin Sheldrake is a fungal biologist with a PhD in tropical ecology from Cambridge University. His research focuses primarily on fungal biology and the history of Amazonian ethnobotany. He is also a musician, brewer, and fermenter.

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