After-Orts #91
Each cubic inch of mycelium compresses eight miles of fine filaments folded unto themselves....
...mushrooms respond to sound: ...high-frequency sounds inhibit spore generation and mycelial growth...[and] low-frequency sound waves stimulate mycelial growth.
... mycologist Paul Stamets ... offers a ... hypothesis. [It is known that] lightning strikes mushrooms more readily than other organisms... [and] the 50,000 volts of electricity a log incurs when struck by lightning greatly stimulates the yield of the shiitake mushrooms growing on it.
... Before lightning strikes, thunder sounds ... mushrooms would want something to awaken them to the impending rain event in order to get ready to absorb the water and electricity so beneficial to their propagation. Low-frequency sound waves, under this hypothesis, act as a warning bell...
Nature is always listening via mycelium. Mycelium is like strings on a violin, strings on a piano, strings on a guitar — these are filaments that are sensitive to vibrations.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/11/13/mushrooms-sound-waves/
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- In less than five minutes, Richard Feynman explains what fire is and where trees come from -
https://youtu.be/ITpDrdtGAmo
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Escapism seems like a mindless waste of time until you open the newspaper and consider the alternative.
— David Brooks, in the New York Times, November 24, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/24/opinion/middle-age-music-taste.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare