Fungi: Web of Life Trailer (IMAX movie, narrated by Björk, presented by Merlin Sheldrake) Merlin Sheldrake 2023-10-16 | Merlin Sheldrake presents an IMAX movie called Fungi: Web of Life. The film is about the ways that fungi have shaped life on Earth for over a billion years, and how we might partner with them to adapt to the radical change of our times. It's narrated by Björk, who speaks the story with inimitable magic and sensitivity. It features astonishing fungal time lapse photography from some of the best fungal photographers working today, including Steve Axford (@planet_fungi), Patrick Hickey, and Wim van Egmond. Much of this footage depicts aspects of fungal life that have never been captured in such high spatial and temporal resolution before. The film will be trickling into IMAX cinemas across Europe and North America over the latter part of 2023 and into 2024, and may already be playing at a theatre near you. Please make enquiries with your nearest IMAX cinemas if you're keen to see it. Narrated by BjörkProduced by Stranger than Fiction FilmsDirected by Gisela Kaufmann and Joseph NizetiPhotography and project development by Steve Axford and Catherine MarciniakCinematography by Cam Batten
Merlin Sheldrake talks about fungi to the UK Parliament Science, Technology & Innovation Committee Merlin Sheldrake 2024-02-12 | On Wednesday 7 February 2024, the cross party committee of UK MPs, the Science, Innovation & Technology Select Committee held a one-off session looking at how the remarkable and diverse properties of fungi can be harnessed to improve human health, tackle environmental and engineering challenges and increase food security. Merlin Sheldrake was one of the witnesses interviewed about the ways we can partner with fungi to adapt to life on a damaged planet.
Merlin Sheldrake on BBC Breakfast talking about the film Fungi: Web of Life, February 2nd, 2024 Merlin Sheldrake 2024-02-07 | Fungi: Web of Life is a film about the ways that fungi have shaped life on Earth for over a billion years, and how we might partner with them to adapt to the radical change of our times. It's narrated by Björk, who speaks the story with extraordinary magic and sensitivity. It features astonishing fungal time lapse photography from some of the best fungal photographers working today, including Steve Axford, Patrick Hickey, and Wim van Egmond. Much of this footage depicts aspects of fungal life that have never been captured in such high spatial and temporal resolution before.
Fungi: Web of Life | Björk explains how fungi decompose wood Merlin Sheldrake 2023-10-27 | A sequence from the upcoming movie, Fungi: Web of Life, in which Björk explains how fungi decompose wood. Fungi are metabolic wizards, but of their many chemical achievements, one of the most impressive is the ability of certain fungi to break down the lignin in wood. These fungi have forever changed the way that carbon journeys through its earthly cycles.Timelapse footage of decomposition is by Steven Axford (Planet Fungi). Note the slime moulds shooting across the scene like yellow lightning.
Fungi: Web of Life | Björk explains how a fungal spore becomes a mycelial network Merlin Sheldrake 2023-10-23 | A sequence from the upcoming IMAX movie, Fungi: Web of Life, in which Björk explains how a fungal spore becomes a mycelial network. Footage by Wim van Egmond. The opening shot features Ester Gaya and Lee Davies in the Kew Fungarium. Presented by Merlin Sheldrake.
Journey deep into a root: Laser scan with plant shown in blue and mycorrhizal fungus in red. Merlin Sheldrake 2022-03-30 | Mycorrhizal relationships lie at the base of the food webs that support much of life on Earth. About 500m years ago, these fungi facilitated the movement of aquatic plants on to land, fungal mycelium serving as plant root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own. Today, most plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi – from the Greek words for fungus (mykes) and root (rhiza) – which weave themselves through roots, provide plants with crucial nutrients, defend them from disease and link them in shared networks sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web”. Globally, the total length of fungal mycelium in the top 10cm of soil is more than 450 quadrillion km: about half the width of our galaxy. These symbiotic networks comprise an ancient life-support system that easily qualifies as one of the wonders of the living world.~ The plant is Voyria corymbosa, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. ~ The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues. ~ Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Entangled Life is out now in paperback in the US and Canada! Merlin Sheldrake 2021-04-13 | “Wondrous”— TIME MAGAZINE, ** 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 **“Gorgeous!”— Margaret Atwood“I love him and I love his book Entangled Life. It’s absolutely lovely.”— Russell Brand“This book is like one surprise after another”— David Byrne“Science at its most uplifting”— Jeanette Winterson“I fell in love with this book”— Michael Pollan (Bay Area Book Festival, 2020)"A must read" — Paul Stamets“Truly profound”— Andrew Weil"A true masterpiece" — George Monbiot“It is impossible to put this book down"— Hans-Ulrich Obrist"Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world." — Ed Yong"The natural world is more fantastic than any fantasy, so long as you have the means to perceive it. This book provides the means."— Jaron Lanier“Dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing”— Robert Macfarlane“A mercurial, revelatory, impassioned, urgent, astounding, and necessary read."— Helen Macdonald"Few books blew my mind like Entangled Life… Not sure if I've ever learned so much from ONE book.”— Andrea Wulf“Gorgeous… food for the soul.”— THE WALL STREET JOURNAL"This book may not be a psychedelic... but reading it left me not just moved but altered.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES"Brilliant… entrancing."— THE GUARDIAN"Wondrous … an astonishing book”— THE OBSERVER*FIVE STARS* “Mind-boggling" — THE TELEGRAPH*FIVE STARS* "After this book, nothing will seem the same again… dazzling."— THE MAIL ON SUNDAY“Full of startling revelations… A joy.”— THE DAILY MAIL "Reads like an adventure story… wondrous."— THE SUNDAY TIMES"Expands our conception of the living world."— THE FINANCIAL TIMES"A sensory as well as an intellectual pleasure."— NEW STATESMAN“Deeply engaging and constantly surprising.” — PROSPECT“An engrossing, captivating journey." — THE SPECTATOR"Sometimes the scene itself shines with poetry."— LA REVIEW OF BOOKS
Laser scan of a root showing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (2) Merlin Sheldrake 2020-12-02 | Laser scan of a root. Plant in blue; symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi in red. Mycorrhizal fungi helped the ancestors of plants to move onto land. By the time the first roots evolved, the mycorrhizal association was already some 50 million years old. The word ‘mycorrhiza’ has it right. Roots (rhiza) followed fungi (mykes) into being..Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Laser scan of a root showing arbusular mycorrhizal fungi Merlin Sheldrake 2020-11-18 | Laser scan of a root. Plant in blue; symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi in red. The sac-like structures form when fungal hyphae swell within plant cells, eventually bursting to release their contents. By partnering, plants gain a prosthetic fungus, and fungi gain a prosthetic plant. Both use the other to extend their reach. This scan depicts a root of Voyria tenella, a small gentian flower that has lost the ability to photosynthesise. These plants are neither green, nor do they have leaves. They grow in deeply shaded parts of the forest understory where few other plants can live. But how?Voyria, like most land plants, depend on mycorrhizal fungi. But their symbiotic manners differ. Photosynthetic plants receive mineral nutrients from their fungal partners and in return supply the fungi with energy rich carbon compounds. Voyria have evolved a way to bypass this exchange. Instead, their roots have evolved into fungal farms, allowing them to draw both carbon and mineral nutrients from their fungal associates and don’t seem to give anything back. Then where does Voyria’s carbon come from? Voyria’s mycorrhizal fungal partners obtain all of their carbon from photosynthetic plants. This means that the carbon that powers the life of Voyria — and which makes up the stuff from which they are made — must come from nearby photosynthetic plants through a shared fungal network. If carbon couldn’t pass from plant to plant through mycorrhizal fungi, Voyria could not exist. Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Nuclear comets in mycelium of the fungus Neurospora crassa Merlin Sheldrake 2020-09-14 | Fungi expertly transport material around themselves. This time-lapse shows traffic through a fungal network. DNA-containing nuclei are stained green. Pulses of nuclei – ‘nuclear comets’ – travel in hordes through the mycelium (of Neurospora crassa). The role of nuclear comets is unclear. The most plausible hypothesis is that the fungus uses comets to supply growing spores with nuclei, although how the fungus is able to shuttle the nuclei so quickly remains a puzzle. Nuclear comets travel faster than material transported by microtubule ‘motors’ (dynamic filaments that behave like a cross between scaffolding and escalators). Comets are followed closely by flocks of energy-producing mitochondria, which might play a role in their rapid transport. Video was made using laser scanning confocal microscopy of Neurospora crassa. The field of view is approximately 0.6 mm. Video © Patrick Hickey
Nuclear traffic through fungal mycelium, Neurospora crassa Merlin Sheldrake 2020-09-03 | DNA-containing nuclei are stained green. Nuclei are carried through the fungal network both by the flow of cellular fluid, and by microtubule 'motors': dynamic filaments of protein that behave like a cross between scaffolding and escalators. Video © Patrick Hickey
Growth and sporulation of fungal mycelium, Neurospora crassa Merlin Sheldrake 2020-09-03 | Video © Patrick Hickey
Spore ejection from orange peel fungus, Aleuria aurantia Merlin Sheldrake 2020-09-03 | Some fungi, like Aleuria aurantia, synchronise spore ejection creating a jet of air—a ‘cooperatively generated wind’—which carries them around obstacles. . Video © Patrick Hickey
Oyster mushrooms sprouting from Merlin Sheldrakes book, Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020-09-03 | Timelapse video of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus) sprouting from Merlin Sheldrake's book: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures, with accompanying song by Cosmo Sheldrake. All sounds apart from voice and double bass are recordings of the fungus devouring the book. Recordings of the fungus were made by sound ecologist Michael Prime using electrodes which detect the bioelectric activity of the fungus and control a tunable oscillator. The fluctuations in pitch and rhythm are real-time sonic representations of the activity of the fungus as it digests the book. With many thanks to GroCycle who inoculated and inoculated the books, and DRK Videography for producing the video. Track mixed and mastered by Vahakn Matossian. Find out more about Entangled Life at www.merlinsheldrake.com.
Pulsing bioluminescent fungal mycelium (Panellus stipticus) Merlin Sheldrake 2020-08-04 | The pulses illustrate how fungal networks can behave as integrated wholes, despite sprawling over potentially large areas (although their biological role isn’t clear). Fungal coordination takes place both everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. 1 second of video = approx. 12 hours of growth. .Video © Patrick Hickey
Growth of bioluminescent mushrooms (Panellus stipticus) Merlin Sheldrake 2020-08-02 | 1 second of video = approx. 12 hours of growth. The first submarine, ‘Turtle’, developed during the American Revolutionary War, used glowing fungi to illuminate its depth gauge. English coal miners in the 19th century reported fungus on pit props that cast enough light to see their hands by..Video © Patrick Hickey
Growth of fungal mycelium showing anastomosis, or cell fusion (Neurospora crassa) Merlin Sheldrake 2020-08-01 | Video © Patrick Hickey
Growth of fungal mycelium (1125x speed, Neurospora crassa) Merlin Sheldrake 2020-07-29 | Video © Patrick Hickey
Spore release from a puffball Merlin Sheldrake 2020-07-28 | Fungi produce 50 megatons of spores each year—equivalent to the weight of five hundred thousand blue whales—making them the largest source of living particles in the air. Spores are found in clouds and influence the weather by triggering the formation of the water droplets that form rain and the ice crystals that form snow, sleet, and hail..Video © Patrick Hickey
Inside-out view of a plants relationship with its symbiotic mycorrhizal fungal partners Merlin Sheldrake 2020-07-22 | Laser scan of a section of root. Plant in blue-green; symbiotic mycorrhizal fungus in red. Out of this intimate partnership – complete with cooperation and competition – plants and mycorrhizal fungi enact a collective flourishing that underpins all recognisable life on land. ~ The plant is Voyria tenella, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. ~ The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues. ~ Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Merlin Sheldrake eats mushrooms sprouting from his book, Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-23 | Fungi make mushrooms, but first they must unmake something else. In this video, I eat oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus) that have sprouted from my book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures. Now Pleurotus has eaten Entangled Life, I can eat the Pleurotus – and so eat my words. Initially I was flattered that Pleurotus had so eagerly devoured the book, but on reflection I'm not sure that I can interpret their behaviour as a vote of confidence. Pleurotus have famously diverse tastes and are able to eat an astonishing variety of things, from crude oil, to used cigarette butts, to glyphosate – they can even trap and consume worms when they need to. The mushrooms were delicious: I couldn't taste any off notes, which suggests that the fungus had fully metabolised the text. The book was soaked in boiling water. The fungus was introduced to the book in the form of myceliated grain and placed in a sealed plastic bag in the dark. After a couple of weeks, when the mycelium had grown, I removed the bag, placed the book in the light, and kept it moist with a water spritzer while it fruited over the course of about five days. Many thanks to my friends at Grocycle.com who inoculated and incubated the books.Find out more about Entangled Life at merlinsheldrake.com.
The sound of the book, Entangled Life, being devoured by a fungus – with a piano accompaniment Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-18 | This is the sound of my book, Entangled Life, being devoured by a fungus (Pleurotus, which produces oyster mushrooms). The fungus made such a good noise that I couldn’t resist playing along on the piano… The video and recording of the book being digested was made by the sound ecologist Michael Prime (Youtube: 'Carbon Ladder'). The electrodes record the bioelectric activity of the fungus alongside its galvanic response (like a lie detector). These data streams control a tunable oscillator. Michael Prime uses filters to shape the raw oscillator signal, but the fluctuations in pitch and rhythm that you hear are a real-time sonic representation of the activity of the fungus as it eats the book. With many thanks to my friends at Grocycle.com who inoculated and incubated the books.Visit merlinsheldrake.com for more about Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures.
Laser scan of plant root and mycorrhizal fungi Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-08 | Laser scan of a plant root. Plant tissue is shown in blue-green, and mycorrhizal fungal tissue in red. ~ The plant is Voyria tenella, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. ~ The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues.~ Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Laser scan of a mycorrhizal fungal arbuscule Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-08 | Laser scan of a root with plant in blue and mycorrhizal fungi in red. The spongy fungal structures are arbuscules (‘little trees’) — the site of exchange between fungus and plant. Plants supply their fungal partners with as much as 30% of the energy they produce in photosynthesis; fungi supply plants with nutrients and defend them from disease. Much of life on land depends on these structures. A proportion of the minerals in your body will have passed through an arbuscule at some point. ~ The plant is Gymnosiphon suaveolens, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. ~ The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues. ~ Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Laser scan of a plant root showing mycorrhizal fungal coils Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-08 | Laser scan of a root with plant in blue, symbiotic mycorrhizal fungus in red. You can see the fungi swelling and bursting within plant cells, where they release nutrients. By partnering, plants gain a prosthetic fungus and fungi gain a prosthetic plant. Both use the other to extend their reach. ~ The plant is Voyria tenella, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. ~ The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues. ~ Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Journey deep inside a plant root and its mycorrhizal fungal partnership Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-08 | In this laser scan, plant is shown in blue and symbiotic mycorrhizal fungus in red. More than 90% of plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi. What we call plants are really algae that have evolved to farm fungi, and fungi that have evolved to farm algae. The history of life is a story of intimacies within intimacies. ~ The plant is Voyria tenella, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. ~ The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues. ~ Video © Merlin Sheldrake
Merlin Sheldrake discusses Entangled Life with Maurizio Benazzo from Science and Nonduality (SAND) Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-08 | ...
Merlin Sheldrake: Thinking about fungi makes the world look different. Merlin Sheldrake 2020-06-08 | ...
