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#fungi

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#fungi #consciousness

"To most of us, mushrooms are just weird-looking woodland growths, and a fungus is something you probably need a cream for. Increasingly, though, scientists are describing fungi as more sophisticated than we previously thought.

Some even say 'intelligent', with a few researchers going so far as to hint they might be conscious.

While such theories are controversial among experts, the rest of us would like to know if, for instance, our breakfast ingredients are thinking about us. So, what should we make of such reports?

(. . .)

'[Fungi have] developed a really efficient and effective way of navigating minute changes in their environment,' says Stokes. 'And that alone – doing it without a central nervous system or a brain – is amazing.'

Whether this kind of behaviour demonstrates intelligence, she isn’t sure, but she says it might be 'worth considering' a wider definition of the term, given that it’s already being applied to the non-living, as with artificial intelligence, for instance."

sciencefocus.com/nature/fungi-

BBC Science Focus Magazine · Fungi could be conscious. Here's what that means | BBC Science Focus MagazineNew research on fungi suggests they could be demonstrating some form of intelligence, but not all experts are convinced.

Sugars from the ocean are responsible for a large part of the ice nuclei over southern hemisphere phys.org/news/2025-07-sugars-s Paper by Susan Hartmann et al.: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.e

"ice-forming molecules (affecting cloud formation) produced by #fungi & #protists in seawater can enter the atmosphere... there was a lack of knowledge about the chemical identity of these molecules... polysaccharides could be the missing piece of the puzzle"

The genetic prison that traps a ghost plant botany.one/2025/06/the-genetic paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10

"M. humile gets energy from #fungi... Even though they don’t photosynthesise, ghost #plants still have leaves... it must have a flower to attract the #insects & get pollinated. But this leads to a genetic problem. The petals and sepals are specialised forms of leaf. Some of the genes that shape the petals and sepals also work on the ghost plant’s leaves... Without the leaves there is no flower."

High-altitude allies: Alpine #plants and their fungal partners jecologyblog.com/2025/07/08/hi paper: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wile

"alpine bistort is not a passive host for #fungi. Instead, it seems to play an active role in choosing its microbial allies, especially when conditions get tough. At the highest, coldest sites the plants appeared to strengthen their partnerships with beneficial fungi. In short, the plants may be choosing better allies when they are in more stressful conditions"

Four #fungi related to species that hijack brains of insects discovered phys.org/news/2025-07-fungi-sp

"In various #forests across #Thailand, researchers have discovered four new species of #Ophiocordyceps, each specializing in parasitizing one species of fly... In Khao Yai NP near Kong Kaeo Waterfall, for example, they found a robber fly attached to the bottom of a leaf with small flower-like growths protruding from its head, thorax and abdomen, earning the new #fungus the name O. floriformis."