Page 16 - The Islander - January '21

Page 16, The Islander

Book review

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change

Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

By Nils A. Shapiro

If, at any earlier time in my world come to astonishingly around an obstacle, the hyphal tips recover the original direction
life, someone had suggested to fascinating life. The author, of their growth ... If one follows the growing tips as they explore,
me that I read this book – let Merlin Sheldrake, is clearly it does something peculiar to one’s mind. One tip becomes two,
alone consider it for a review in in love with his subject. becomes four, becomes eight—yet all remain connected in one
this monthly column – I would A biologist and writer, he mycelial network. Is this organism singular or plural, I find
have laughed at the idea. After received a Ph.D. in tropical myself wondering, before I’m forced to admit that it is somehow,
all, one of my worst subjects biology from the University improbably, both. Watching a hypha explore a single clinical
in all my student days, from of Cambridge in England maze is bewildering, but scale up: Imagine millions of hyphal
elementary school through for his work on underground tips, each navigating a different maze at the same time within a
college, was science, and this fungal networks in tropical tablespoon of soil. Scale up again: Imagine billions of hyphal tips
is very much a book on an area forests in Panama, where he exploring a patch of forest the size of a football field. Mycelium
of science. was a predoctoral research is ecological connective tissue, the living seam by which much of
So what made me select it to read and review? There are fellow at the Smithsonian the world is stitched into relation ... According to some estimates,
several reasons: Tropical Research Institute. Remarkably, from his photo on the if one teased apart the mycelium found in a gram of soil – about
To begin with, it’s difficult to ignore a book that is greeted by inside book cover, he looks to be in his late 30s. He is also a a teaspoon – and laid it end to end, it could stretch anywhere
media reviewers with such adjectives as “mercurial, revelatory, musician, which is not surprising: His writing in this book is as from a hundred meters to ten kilometers.”
impassioned, astounding, grand and dizzying, earth-shaking, clear and beautiful as melodies are to the ear. Fungi are being used today to help combat the problems of
magical, remarkable, fantastic, engaging, profound” and praise One thing I can promise you: Entangled Life is so full of climate change and pollution.
equally eloquent. extraordinarily interesting information that you will be constantly “In Mexico City, used diapers make up between five and
But just as importantly, as readers of this column have come to bringing this book to show certain facts to friends and family. fifteen percent by weight of solid waste. Researchers have found
understand, while some of my reading hours have been devoted And if you are the kind of person who underlines those special that the omnivorous Pleurotus mycelium – a white rot fungus
to fiction I do prefer nonfiction, for the longer I stretch into my passages as you are reading (I am not; to me, despoiling a book that fruits into edible oyster mushrooms – can grow happily on
retirement years the stronger is my thirst for, and curiosity about, is a sin!), you will be marking every single page, because there a diet of used diapers. Over the course of two months, diapers
knowledge of the world around me: all of nature, and the lives are at least a thousand facts that you will want to share with introduced to Pleurotus lose about eighty-five percent of their
of the creatures with whom we share this world. others. starting mass when the plastic covering was removed, compared
The responsibility for writing this monthly review column Here are just a few, to give you a hint of what is in store with a mere five percent in fungus-free controls. What’s more,
has provided an opportunity for me to share with you by now for you in these pages. I have used elipses (...) to mark where the mushrooms produced were healthy and free from human
almost 200 books on a wide range of subjects that I felt deserved additional original text has been omitted: diseases. Similar projects are underway in India. By cultivating
your attention – including a very special few that for me have “Humans wear perfumes produced by other organisms Pleurotus on agricultural waste – by enzymatically combusting
been life-changing experiences, such as The Soul of an Octopus and it is not uncommon for fungal aromas to be incorporated the material – less biomass is thermally combusted and air
(which has been a bestseller in 25 countries) and The Hidden Life into our own sexual rituals. Agarwood, or oudh, is a fungal quality is improved.”
of Trees (which was among the first to propose the now widely infection of Aquilaria trees found in India and Southeast Asia One section is devoted to the startling new role mycelium
accepted concept that trees in a natural forest have “intelligence” and one of the most valuable raw materials in the world. It is has already started to play in our future:
and, among other capabilities, communicate with one another – used to make a scent ... and has been coveted at least since the “In principle, fungi are some of the best-qualified organisms
interestingly enough, in large part due to the role of fungi). time of the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides. The best oudh for environmental remediation ... Around the world, the idea that
Entangled Life is another of the richly rewarding books for is worth more, gram for gram, than gold or platinum—as much fungi can be used to build things as well as break them down
those of you who share an interest in the world around you – as $100,000 per kilogram ...” is starting to catch on. A material made from the outer layers
indeed, the world inside you, as well. The subject of this book “Fungi are pharmaceutically prolific, and today we of portabello mushrooms shows promise in replacing graphite
– fungi is the plural of fungus – is literally everywhere: inside depend on them for many other chemicals besides penicillin: in lithium batteries. The mycelieum of some species makes an
your body; in the ground you walk on; in the air you breathe; in cyclosporine (an immunosuppressant drug that makes organ effective skin substitute, used by surgeons to help wounds to heal.
the water you drink; in the food you eat; in the furniture you sit transplants possible), cholesterol-lowering statins, a host And in the United States, a company called Ecovative Design is
on; in the flowers, plants and trees you pass by; in the medicines of powerful antiviral and anticancer compounds (including growing building materials out of mycelium ... It was the familiar
that heal you – or the diseases that kill you. the multi-billion dollar drug Taxol, originally extracted from fungal win-win-win for waste producer, cultivator, and fungus
I must state at the outset that Entangled Life is not a quick, the fungi that live within yew trees), not to mention alcohol ... The packaging materials that Ecovative grows are designed
easy read – at least, for me it was not. For someone lacking (fermented by a yeast) and psilocybin (the active component in to replace plastics. Their construction materials are designed
the science gene, such terms and concepts as mycorrhizal psychedelic mushrooms recently shown in clinical trials to be to replace brick, concrete, and particle board. Their leather-
fungi, phenotype extension and rhizomorphs, there were some capable of lifting severe depression and anxiety ... Fifteen percent like textile replaces animal leather. Hundreds of square feet of
paragraphs I had to read a couple of times to fully understand. of all vaccines are produced by engineered strains of yeast ...” mycelial leather can be grown in less than a week on materials
But those were few and far between, and well worth the effort. “Imagine that you could pass through two doors at once. that would otherwise be disposed of. At the end of their life,
A 16-page section of color illustrations, many black-and-white It’s inconceivable, yet fungi do it all the time. When faced mycelial products can be composted.”
drawings throughout the text, and a substantial set of notes at with a forked path, fungal hyphae (the extensions they form in There is so much more – for example, the ability of fungi to
the back of the book all proved to be very helpful. order to grow) don’t have to choose one or the other. They can invade the bodies of ants and other insects and literally control
But the key to understanding and enjoying this book branch and take both routes. One can confront hyphae with their minds – but I will leave it to you to find out about that, and
– and what earned all of the praise it has received – is the microscopic labyrinths and watch how they nose their way about the fungi that live inside you.
brilliant text that somehow makes this technical, microscopic around. If obstructed, they branch. After diverting themselves Entangled Life is worth the time you devote to it.

January 2021 / Jupiter Inlet Tide Chart

Day High Low High Low High Day High Low High Low High
Fri 1 4:19 AM 10:37 AM 4:50 PM 10:43 PM Sun 17 6:07 AM 12:02 PM 6:36 PM
Sat 2 5:03 AM 11:20 AM 5:34 PM 11:31 PM Mon 18 12:23 AM 6:54 AM 12:43 PM 7:24 PM
Sun 3 5:50 AM 12:03 PM 6:23 PM Tue 19 1:10 AM 7:43 AM 1:24 PM 8:12 PM
Mon 4 12:22 AM 6:41 AM 12:50 PM 7:17 PM Wed 20 1:59 AM 8:35 AM 2:08 PM 9:03 PM
Tue 5 1:18 AM 7:39 AM 1:40 PM 8:15 PM Thur 21 2:52 AM 9:30 AM 2:57 PM 9:56 PM
Wed 6 2:19 AM 8:43 AM 2:35 PM 9:17 PM Fri 22 3:50 AM 10:26 AM 3:51 PM 10:49 PM
Thur 7 3:25 AM 9:49 AM 3:35 PM 10:19 PM Sat 23 4:48 AM 11:20 AM 4:48 PM 11:39 PM
Fri 8 4:32 AM 10:54 AM 4:39 PM 11:20 PM Sun 24 5:45 AM 12:11 PM 5:44 PM
Sat 9 5:36 AM 11:55 AM 5:41 PM Mon 25 12:27 AM 6:37 AM 12:59 PM 6:37 PM
Sun 10 12:18 AM 6:36 AM 12:53 PM 6:41 PM Tue 26 1:13 AM 7:25 AM 1:43 PM 7:26 PM
Mon 11 1:14 AM 7:31 AM 1:47 PM 7:37 PM Wed 27 1:56 AM 8:10 AM 2:25 PM 8:13 PM
Tue 12 2:07 AM 8:23 AM 2:39 PM 8:29 PM Thur 28 2:38 AM 8:52 AM 3:07 PM 8:58 PM
Wed 13 2:58 AM 9:11 AM 3:28 PM 9:19 PM Fri 29 3:21 AM 9:34 AM 3:48 PM 9:43 PM
Thur 14 3:47 AM 9:56 AM 4:16 PM 10:06 PM Sat 30 4:03 AM 10:15 AM 4:31 PM 10:29 PM
Fri 15 4:34 AM 10:40 AM 5:03 PM 10:52 PM Sun 31 4:48 AM 10:57 AM 5:15 PM 11:16 PM
Sat 16 5:21 AM 11:22 AM 5:50 PM 11:38 PM
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