Plants and animals get all the glory, but fungi are out there every day, breaking down leaf litter, making our bread nice and fluffy, and fermenting alcohols. They deserve a little thanks, so we did a whole episode about them!
Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions!
If you want to learn more about any of our main topics, check out these links:
[Truth or Fail]
Fungal Pesticides:
https://agrochemicals.iupac.org/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=3&sobi2Id=31
https://phys.org/news/2019-02-virus-infested-fungus-chemical-pesticides.html
Tinder Fungi:
https://www.uab.cat/web/newsroom/news-detail-1345668003610.html?noticiaid=1345754508535
Egyptian Medicine:
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/nyregion/secrets-of-the-mummys-medicine-chest.html
[Fact Off]
Whiskey mold:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18065010
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5315285/
https://www.wired.com/2011/05/ff-angelsshare/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/78dyqb/kentuckys-whiskey-fungus-problem-is-out-of-control
Plastic-digesting fungus:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202047
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117300295
[Ask the Science Couch]
“Zombie” ants:
https://www.pnas.org/content/114/47/12590
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187170
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204140/
[Butt One More Thing]
Zygomycota:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003237