Fungi

Seasonal Science: Asian Tiger Mosquito

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Has your backyard picnic ever been interrupted by an attack of mosquitoes? Don’t you just hate the itchy, red bumps that follow? But, did you also know these pests can carry viruses that could make you sick? In this video, learn how and why the invasive Asian tiger mosquito is even more problematic than other varieties.

Can Mushrooms Help to Save the Honeybees?

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Commercial honeybees are in trouble. Since 2006, a third of all bee colonies have died from colony collapse disorder (CCD); this occurs when worker bees mysteriously disappear causing the entire colony to die. Scientists believe CCD may be the result of up to 60 environmental factors including: pesticides, disease, malnutrition, loss of habitat, and climate change.

Steve Sheppard, Department of Entomology at Washington State University and Paul Stamets, a mycologist from the Pacific Northwest are working together to save the honeybee from CCD, and they’re experimenting with an unconventional remedy: the mushroom.

Gross Science | An Internet Made of Fungus

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Learn how plants communicate with one another, in this video from NOVA’s Gross Science series. Some plants communicate via the Wood Wide Web—an underground network of mycorrhizal fungi, which grow on the roots of plants. The plants provide the fungi with sugars while the fungi provide the plants with water and nutrients. Fungal networks connect many plants together, allowing for signals to be transported throughout entire forests. This type of network can provide nutrients to struggling plants and alert neighboring plants of threats. This resource is part of the NOVA: Gross Science Collection.

Bat Killer? | Idaho Science Journal

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Thousands of bats across the country are dying from the disease White Nose Syndrome. Reporter Joan Cartan-Hansen follows scientists as they test brown bats to see if the disease has spread to Idaho. This report originally aired on Idaho Public Television’s Science Trek program.

Fungi: Death Becomes Them | Crash Course Biology

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Death is what fungi are all about. By feasting on the deceased remains of almost all organisms on the planet, converting the organic matter back into soil from which new life will spring, they perform perhaps the most vital function in the global food web. Fungi, which thrive on death, make all life possible.

When Giant Fungi Ruled | Eons

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420 million years ago, a giant feasted on the dead, growing slowly into the largest living thing on land. It belonged to an unlikely group of pioneers that ultimately made life on land possible -- the fungi.

Cheese by the Numbers: 571.3

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Do you know how many pounds of cheese are sold in the US every year? (Hint: it's not a low number!) Also, when is cheese mold good, and when is it bad? Find out in this episode of Cheese Cubed!

It’s the Pits!/NC Science Now

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Discover why wearing deodorants and antiperspirants not only affect your social life, they change the microbial life on your body.

The Evolution of Agriculture in Ants | Smithsonian Science How

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Get to know the creatures that are responsible for processing more vegetation than any animal on earth, the leaf-cutter ants. Meet Dr. Ted Schultz, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Take a journey with Ted to meet the leaf-cutters in his lab and witness their remarkable farming abilities. Think about how their agricultural systems compare to ours. Find out more about how entomologists like Ted are piecing together the evolutionary history of farming in ants.

Ancient Farmers of the Amazon

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The coevolution of the leafcutter ant and the fungi on which it feeds is illustrated in this video segment from Evolution: Evolutionary Arms Race. Leafcutters have been "farming" this fungus for millions of years, feeding, fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting it. Learn how one graduate student's seemingly far-fetched idea led to the discovery that this symbiotic relationship involved at least two more, previously unaccounted for, species. Featured participants: Ted R. Schultz, Ulrich G. Mueller, and Cameron R. Currie.

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