Science & Cocktails – The Secrets Behind the World of Mushrooms

The Secrets Behind the World of Mushrooms Science and Cocktails is proud to present an episode with superstar ecologist and Cardiff University professor Lynne Boddy, author of many books including "Fungi: Discover the Science and Secrets Behind the World of Mushrooms", who will

explain everything you ever wanted to know about the impact of mushrooms on our lives. All this after the world-famous, all-time favourite Orgelheimers play surf, jazz and other stuff.

Tickets

Seated tickets are paid. Standing tickets are free and valid until 8pm. This means that you must enter before 8pm and can stay for the entire event. After 8pm, we let people in on a first come, first served basis.

What is the event about?

Why are fungi essential to our existence? Do fungi show behaviour? Can fungi remember? Why and how do fungi fight? Do other organisms affect how fungi behave?

When most people think of fungi, the first thing that usually comes to mind is mushrooms. However, mushrooms are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. They are the reproductive parts of one main group of fungi. The main body of the fungus – the mycelium – is a network of microscopic filaments that grows in or on whatever the fungus is using for food. Working unseen, fungi are essential to Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems, and without them we could not survive. They allowed plants to colonise land over 450 million years ago, they still feed our plants today, they break down dead plants and other tissues, releasing nutrients and making them available again for plants and other organisms to use, and they provide habitats for a wide diversity of other organisms.

In this edition of Science and Cocktails, Professor Lynne Boddy (Cardiff University) will introduce this amazing hidden kingdom, showing the fascinating behaviour of fungi with the aid of examples from her team’s research on wood-inhabiting fungi. Fungal mycelia are made up of microscopic threads (hyphae), but in some fungal species, these threads bundle together to build visible, cord-like networks.

Many also form darkened plates of tissue in wood that mark the boundaries of the territory they occupy, separating one mycelium from another and making it possible to see the structure of their communities in the wood they inhabit. In her talk, Professor Boddy will explore the behaviour of those species that form cord-like structures growing out of wood into the inhospitable soil environment in a quest for new food sources. They can form large and long-lived networks, spanning many metres and many years.

When fungi find new food sources, they adapt by reshaping their networks. Each species responds in its own way, using distinct strategies to survive. There is even some evidence that fungi have a form of ‘memory’, although it is very different from memory in organisms with nervous systems. In the natural environment, wood-decay fungi rarely exist alone, and when they meet a mycelium of a different species, they battle using enzymes and volatile and diffusible chemicals to kill or inhibit their opponent. In this way, they can maintain the territory they occupy or even expand it, causing fungal communities in wood to change. Mycelia are highly nutritious and are a food source for small soil organisms, which also alters the fungus’s behaviour and success in the natural environment.

The highly networked mycelial bodies of most fungi range from the microscopic to some of the largest organisms on the planet, setting them apart from all other organisms. Combined with their ability to break down some of the most complex naturally produced chemical compounds, this makes fungi not only fascinating but indispensable in the natural world.

More information here: https://www.scienceandcocktail...

About Lynne Boddy

Lynne Boddy is Professor of Fungal Ecology at Cardiff University, UK. She has taught and researched the ecology of fungi associated with trees and wood decomposition for 50 years. She is fascinated by the hidden parts of fungi – mycelia – and how they behave in the natural world, their aggressive interactions with fungi of other species, how their communities develop in wood, and how they are affected by invertebrates that feed on them and by climate change. She is a prolific author, having co-authored many scientific papers, academic books and popular books about fungi for children and adults. Lynne is a passionate communicator of the mysteries and importance of the amazing hidden kingdom of fungi to the general public through TV, radio, public talks, videos, articles and exhibitions. She has received many national and international awards for her outstanding contributions to mycology and science outreach, including an MBE in 2019.

About The Orgelheimers

A true Science & Cocktails classic – the Orgelheimers: a mix of two Hammond organs, a guitarist who might break everything on stage and a drummer from another planet. Stir it all together with surf, jazz, groove and a pinch of nightclub smoke, and enjoy at room temperature – or sweaty as a...