small things
lately in the public lens
I’m always surprised at how little most people know about fungi. As you know, I love fungi very much, and I also like to teach. So I often find myself giving talks to introduce people to the weird and cool things that fungi do, leading walks in the woods, or (ahem), editing a blog about them. Here is a short compilation of web-accessible popular lectures, interviews, and stuff I’ve done lately. Also, some bonus advice on hand lenses.
Small friends of fungi
An homage to the Little Things that run the world. Oh how we love them in all their unplumbed diversity! Here is a thoughtful reminder of the roles of the small and oft-overlooked members of the Dead Plants Society, courtesy of our many-legged guest, Bob Mesibov.
Paleomycology: Discovering the fungal contemporaries of dinosaurs
Fungi tend to be small, soft, and ephemeral — properties that don’t exactly help establish a strong presence in the fossil record. But they certainly have been around for a long time (perhaps 4 billion years?). Here we explore some of the fungi of the distant past, including some molds preserved perfectly in amber for tens of millions of years.
Beneath Notice
Our new book is now available! It’s a self-published catalog of our last two years of art shows, which featured the use of a borescope to get up close and personal with small fungi. The borescope gives a fabulous, bug’s eye view of small things in the field, at a scale more fitting to their small majesty than a squinty hand lens or a sober microscope. We think you’ll like the book.
Homeward Bound: Fungi of China
The Fungi of China collection at the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium has a poignant history. Rescued from destruction during the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, many of its fragile specimens traveled by oxcart and by ship to the US, where we have been safeguarding them for about 70 years. Now we’ve divided them and will be sending the new duplicates back to the Herbarium of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is our gift to the people of China.
borescopic mycology
We’re so excited about small things, we devised a whole new way to look at them. ‘Beneath Notice’ was our 2009 art show, which hung at Mann Library’s 2nd floor gallery Jan 12 – Feb 27. It featured Kent Loeffler’s stupendous photographs of fungi, all taken with a borescope. This allows us to get all up close and personal with mushrooms and less-often-seen tiny fungi. As if that wasn’t enough, the photos were annotated with fungal outbursts by Kathie Hodge, and Kent’s famous time lapse videos were running on nearby hi-def monitors. Missed the show? Buy the catalog.
Fungi in streams: a leaf nightmare
The fungi that live in burbling streams are full of surprises. They’re shockingly pronged and elegant–not the kind of thing you’d expect to find in a spoonful of filthy-looking foam. And they’re surprisingly important as foundation members of aquatic ecosystems.
The Perfect Pitch
This delightful guest post by Moselio Schaechter and Merry Youle explains the mechanism by which mushrooms discharge their spores. You always wanted to know why mushrooms are associated with dank and humid places–this clever water-assisted mechanism is the explanation.
Furia ithacensis
Well now, everyone likes a dead fly, but I’m here to tell you that some dead flies are more spectacular than others. Like these gloriously dead snipe flies, exploded by a fungus that is named after my home town. If I were a birder, I’d call this find a “good bird,” and tick it off on my life list. Do you have a life list?
The Friday Afternoon Mycologist: The Dancing Nematode and the Helicospore
Lots of small twisty things, entwined. Some of them are moving. What the heck is going on here?
The fungus in my maple syrup
“Last week an uninvited guest showed up for breakfast. As I poured maple syrup over my son’s waffle, Plop! A perfect dime-sized fungus colony spilled out to crown that waffle like a malevolent pat of butter.” Meet Wallemia sebi!
When strawberries go bad
What could be better than succulent fruit, rotting in time lapse? And doesn’t everyone want to know more about the fungi that rot strawberries? These are rhetorical questions.