from the it's-not-because-of-the-mushrooms-they-really-are-talking dept.
Mathematical analysis of the electrical signals fungi seemingly send to one another has identified patterns that bear a striking structural similarity to human speech.
Previous research has suggested that fungi conduct electrical impulses through long, underground filamentous structures called hyphae – similar to how nerve cells transmit information in humans.
Prof Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England’s unconventional computing laboratory in Bristol used tiny microelectrodes to investigate patterns of electrical spikes transmitted through long, underground filamentous structures called hyphae generated by four species of fungi. He noted that the pulses changed depending upon the surface the fungi are in contact with. He found that the spikes often clustered into trains of activity, resembling vocabularies of up to 50 words, and that the distribution of these “fungal word lengths” closely matched those of human languages.
[...] The most likely reasons for these waves of electrical activity are to maintain the fungi’s integrity – analogous to wolves howling to maintain the integrity of the pack – or to report newly discovered sources of attractants and repellants to other parts of their mycelia, Adamtzky suggested.
“There is also another option – they are saying nothing,” he said. “Propagating mycelium tips are electrically charged, and, therefore, when the charged tips pass in a pair of differential electrodes, a spike in the potential difference is recorded.”
Whatever these “spiking events” represent, they do not appear to be random, he added.
In discussing these results, Dan Bebber, an associate professor of biosciences at the University of Exeter, and a member of the British Mycological Society’s fungal biology research committee said, “Though interesting, the interpretation as language seems somewhat overenthusiastic, and would require far more research and testing of critical hypotheses before we see ‘Fungus’ on Google Translate.”
Journal Reference:
Andrew Adamatzky, Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity [open], R. Soc. Open Sci. 9: 211926.
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211926
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @01:53AM
before it got picked? Here we go again.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @01:58AM (9 children)
New york pizza slice with pepperoni and mushroom rules.
New york cheese pizza? Ok, pretty good.
New york pepperoni pizza? Ok, a bit bettter.
New york pepperoni and mushroom pizza slice with olive oil dripping down? Are you fucking kidding me? Forget about it.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:06AM (4 children)
I picked this up from Costco last week. It's great to have and cheap once you realize it's like buying 7.5 lbs of fresh mushrooms:
https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/The-Wild-Mushroom-Co-Dried-Gourmet-Mix-Mushrooms%2C-12-oz.product.100312691.html [costcobusinessdelivery.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:23AM (1 child)
your link doesn't work for me because, maybe adblock scriptblock, whatever.
But I don't care. Mushroom "communicate" to me all the same. Love new york pizza, but it needs mushroom, more than pepperoni.
Love mushroom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @03:04AM
Shiitake, maitake, enokitake yum! I want lion's mane chowder! You can also get some swiss and melt it on a big juicy portobello for an excellent burger.
It is almost as good as the feeling of unconditional love that the psychoactive shrooms give, but you can't take a spirit journey every day like you can eat mushroom pizza and portobello burgers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:27AM (1 child)
[View Pricing]
"Costco Business Center does not deliver to your area. Please visit your nearest Costco location or shop Costco.com."
computer says NO
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:36AM
It was around $13 I think. I don't know where the receipt is.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 14 2022, @03:15AM (3 children)
What's your hangup with New York pizza? Run over to New Jersey and try the white pizza. https://slicelife.com/pizza-delivery/nj-hoboken/white-pizza [slicelife.com]
I suppose you can ask for 'shrooms - they're mostly white. Or check out Nomad, and get a white pizza with 'shrooms - http://www.nomadpizzaco.com/hopewell.html [nomadpizzaco.com]
One of my mottos is, "Anything a New Yorker can do, someone else does better."
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @03:33AM (1 child)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @04:50AM
About as much as he knows about anything. Runsaway's ignorance has been displayed often and proudly here on SoylentNews. But you see, he does recognize "white" pizza, which must then stand, in the mind of a really stupid redneck hillbilly, for white supremacy! But, doesn't he know that a Supreme Pizza trumps a "white" pizza, and does it with diversity, and social justice? Poor Runaway. We may have to send him off to the Old Confederate Soldiers Home, pretty soon now.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 15 2022, @02:52AM
I'm reminded of the day I was making lasagna, and suddenly decided I was tired of tomato sauce... so I substituted cream cheese and mushrooms. It was delicious.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bmimatt on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:44AM (3 children)
I've had the pleasure of working with some office-grown mushrooms in the past. Some of them had very large vocabulary, some just under the quoted '50-word'.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @03:56AM (2 children)
Mgmt 101
- keep them in the dark
- feed them shit
- watch 'em grow
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @04:16PM
I have one. Now I wish I had done this from the start.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday April 16 2022, @01:24AM
Is this why managers spew so much bullshit?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by inertnet on Thursday April 14 2022, @08:06AM (1 child)
I wonder if this could be developed into a fungus repellent: "don't go here" (or don't grow here).
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday April 14 2022, @01:37PM
No. It might be developed into a repellent for certain kinds of fungus, but there's no reason to believe that it would work on, e.g., athlete's foot.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @12:23PM
This has already been discovered.
Just watch Avatar, the scene where they are testing biological connects to the plants before the big scary monster jumps in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:06PM (2 children)
that's all i hear when i see a mushroom
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @02:51PM
Well you won't last long then, cause some of them will quickly liquefy your organs.
Maybe filter your hearing so not "all" of them say eat me?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 14 2022, @04:37PM
"Hello there, ambulating mass of Nitrogen! Try some of my /delicious/ fruits..."
"Oh, you have color vision and can tell that I'm red.."
"Nonono, I'm not poisonous! Honest!"
"Hmm.. Delicious fruits.. just popping up out of the ground, and easy to collect and eat! yum yum!"
(drat, it's turning away. When did bags of nitrogen get smart, anyway?)
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday April 14 2022, @06:07PM (3 children)
I started a story last year about intelligent mushrooms, but I lost interest after a half dozen paragraphs. I may pick it up again.
But these mushrooms are on a different planet that Earthians are exploring. It starts with a dead biologist with a stab wound.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 15 2022, @02:54AM (2 children)
[has horrible image of sliced corpse with mushrooms growing out of the wounds, decides that might make a pretty good story]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday April 17 2022, @07:44PM (1 child)
Hmm... I'll give that some thought.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday April 17 2022, @08:30PM
Not in my writing bailiwick, so feel free.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.