FIVE THINGS: THE FUNGUS AMONG US

mushroom Bread, beer, truffles, kombucha, even a delicious mouldy cheese: without microorganisms, food and drink would not be nearly so pungent, fizzy or fun. On the New York Times Opinionator Blog Olivia Judson has nominated yeast, a fungus, as "life-form of the month". We've culled four of her reasons why, with one of our own.

Fungi show no mercy:

"Like animals, they digest their food—though fungi do it not by swallowing, but by releasing chemicals into the environment... Sometimes this takes on sinister dimensions. For example, if you are nematode worm crawling through the soil, you may get stuck in a sticky web. But in this web there is no spider. The web itself is alive: it is not made of silk, but of the filaments of a fungus. The web itself will digest you."

Fungi can be larger than life:

"Single individuals of the [fungus] species Armillaria bulbosa have been estimated to cover 15 hectares (37 acres) and weigh 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds). Funky."

Fungi have complicated gender dynamics:

"Some species have huge numbers of sexes—the mushroom Schizophyllum commune is estimated to have as many as 20,000."

Fungi are just like us:

"Humans and yeast have many genes in common: about 60 percent of yeast genes are known to have human equivalents, and almost a quarter of human disease-causing genes have equivalents in yeast."

And last, but not least:

Yeast makes possible Jim Lahey's no-knead bread recipe. European crackle and chew, with very little work. Thanks, Saccharomyces cerevisiae!

~ ARIEL RAMCHANDANI

Picture Credit: Denna Jones (via Flickr)