TED2008
Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Filmed:
Readability: 5.1
6,118,855 views
Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses.
Paul Stamets - Mycologist
Paul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds. Full bio
Paul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
I love a challenge, and saving the Earth is probably a good one.
0
0
4000
00:22
We all know the Earth is in trouble.
1
4000
2000
00:24
We have now entered in the 6X,
2
6000
2000
00:26
the sixth major extinction on this planet.
3
8000
3000
00:29
I often wondered, if there was a United Organization of Organisms --
4
11000
3000
00:32
otherwise known as "Uh-Oh" --
5
14000
2000
00:34
(Laughter) -- and every organism had a right to vote,
6
16000
3000
00:37
would we be voted on the planet, or off the planet?
7
19000
3000
00:40
I think that vote is occurring right now.
8
22000
3000
00:43
I want to present to you a suite of six mycological solutions,
9
25000
3000
00:46
using fungi, and these solutions are based on mycelium.
10
28000
6000
00:53
The mycelium infuses all landscapes,
11
35000
3000
00:56
it holds soils together, it's extremely tenacious.
12
38000
3000
00:59
This holds up to 30,000 times its mass.
13
41000
3000
01:02
They're the grand molecular disassemblers of nature -- the soil magicians.
14
44000
3000
01:05
They generate the humus soils across the landmasses of Earth.
15
47000
4000
01:09
We have now discovered that there is a multi-directional transfer
16
51000
5000
01:14
of nutrients between plants, mitigated by the mcyelium --
17
56000
4000
01:18
so the mycelium is the mother
18
60000
2000
01:20
that is giving nutrients from alder and birch trees
19
62000
2000
01:22
to hemlocks, cedars and Douglas firs.
20
64000
2000
01:24
Dusty and I, we like to say, on Sunday, this is where we go to church.
21
66000
5000
01:29
I'm in love with the old-growth forest,
22
71000
2000
01:31
and I'm a patriotic American because we have those.
23
73000
4000
01:35
Most of you are familiar with Portobello mushrooms.
24
77000
3000
01:38
And frankly, I face a big obstacle.
25
80000
2000
01:40
When I mention mushrooms to somebody,
26
82000
2000
01:42
they immediately think Portobellos or magic mushrooms,
27
84000
2000
01:44
their eyes glaze over, and they think I'm a little crazy.
28
86000
3000
01:47
So, I hope to pierce that prejudice forever with this group.
29
89000
3000
01:50
We call it mycophobia,
30
92000
2000
01:52
the irrational fear of the unknown, when it comes to fungi.
31
94000
5000
01:57
Mushrooms are very fast in their growth.
32
99000
3000
02:00
Day 21, day 23, day 25.
33
102000
4000
02:04
Mushrooms produce strong antibiotics.
34
106000
2000
02:06
In fact, we're more closely related to fungi than we are to any other kingdom.
35
108000
3000
02:09
A group of 20 eukaryotic microbiologists
36
111000
3000
02:12
published a paper two years ago erecting opisthokonta --
37
114000
3000
02:15
a super-kingdom that joins animalia and fungi together.
38
117000
3000
02:18
We share in common the same pathogens.
39
120000
3000
02:21
Fungi don't like to rot from bacteria,
40
123000
2000
02:23
and so our best antibiotics come from fungi.
41
125000
4000
02:27
But here is a mushroom that's past its prime.
42
129000
2000
02:29
After they sporulate, they do rot.
43
131000
2000
02:31
But I propose to you that the sequence of microbes
44
133000
3000
02:34
that occur on rotting mushrooms
45
136000
2000
02:36
are essential for the health of the forest.
46
138000
2000
02:38
They give rise to the trees,
47
140000
2000
02:40
they create the debris fields that feed the mycelium.
48
142000
3000
02:43
And so we see a mushroom here sporulating.
49
145000
3000
02:46
And the spores are germinating,
50
148000
2000
02:48
and the mycelium forms and goes underground.
51
150000
3000
02:51
In a single cubic inch of soil, there can be more than eight miles of these cells.
52
153000
4000
02:55
My foot is covering approximately 300 miles of mycelium.
53
157000
3000
02:58
This is photomicrographs from Nick Read and Patrick Hickey.
54
160000
5000
03:03
And notice that as the mycelium grows,
55
165000
2000
03:05
it conquers territory and then it begins the net.
56
167000
3000
03:11
I've been a scanning electron microscopist for many years,
57
173000
3000
03:14
I have thousands of electron micrographs,
58
176000
2000
03:16
and when I'm staring at the mycelium,
59
178000
2000
03:18
I realize that they are microfiltration membranes.
60
180000
2000
03:20
We exhale carbon dioxide, so does mycelium.
61
182000
3000
03:23
It inhales oxygen, just like we do.
62
185000
3000
03:26
But these are essentially externalized stomachs and lungs.
63
188000
4000
03:30
And I present to you a concept that these are extended neurological membranes.
64
192000
5000
03:35
And in these cavities, these micro-cavities form,
65
197000
3000
03:38
and as they fuse soils, they absorb water.
66
200000
2000
03:40
These are little wells.
67
202000
2000
03:42
And inside these wells, then microbial communities begin to form.
68
204000
3000
03:45
And so the spongy soil not only resists erosion,
69
207000
4000
03:49
but sets up a microbial universe
70
211000
2000
03:51
that gives rise to a plurality of other organisms.
71
213000
5000
03:56
I first proposed, in the early 1990s,
72
218000
2000
03:58
that mycelium is Earth's natural Internet.
73
220000
4000
04:02
When you look at the mycelium, they're highly branched.
74
224000
5000
04:07
And if there's one branch that is broken, then very quickly,
75
229000
5000
04:12
because of the nodes of crossing --
76
234000
2000
04:14
Internet engineers maybe call them hot points --
77
236000
2000
04:16
there are alternative pathways for channeling nutrients and information.
78
238000
5000
04:21
The mycelium is sentient.
79
243000
2000
04:23
It knows that you are there.
80
245000
2000
04:25
When you walk across landscapes,
81
247000
2000
04:27
it leaps up in the aftermath of your footsteps trying to grab debris.
82
249000
5000
04:34
So, I believe the invention of the computer Internet
83
256000
4000
04:38
is an inevitable consequence
84
260000
2000
04:40
of a previously proven, biologically successful model.
85
262000
3000
04:43
The Earth invented the computer Internet for its own benefit,
86
265000
4000
04:47
and we now, being the top organism on this planet,
87
269000
4000
04:51
are trying to allocate resources in order to protect the biosphere.
88
273000
6000
04:57
Going way out, dark matter conforms to the same mycelial archetype.
89
279000
5000
05:02
I believe matter begets life;
90
284000
2000
05:04
life becomes single cells; single cells become strings;
91
286000
3000
05:07
strings become chains; chains network.
92
289000
3000
05:10
And this is the paradigm that we see throughout the universe.
93
292000
5000
05:16
Most of you may not know that fungi were the first organisms to come to land.
94
298000
3000
05:19
They came to land 1.3 billion years ago,
95
301000
3000
05:22
and plants followed several hundred million years later.
96
304000
3000
05:25
How is that possible?
97
307000
2000
05:27
It's possible because the mycelium produces oxalic acids,
98
309000
3000
05:30
and many other acids and enzymes,
99
312000
2000
05:32
pockmarking rock and grabbing calcium and other minerals
100
314000
4000
05:36
and forming calcium oxalates.
101
318000
2000
05:38
Makes the rocks crumble, and the first step in the generation of soil.
102
320000
5000
05:43
Oxalic acid is two carbon dioxide molecules joined together.
103
325000
4000
05:47
So, fungi and mycelium
104
329000
2000
05:49
sequester carbon dioxide in the form of calcium oxalates.
105
331000
4000
05:53
And all sorts of other oxalates
106
335000
2000
05:55
are also sequestering carbon dioxide through the minerals
107
337000
3000
05:58
that are being formed and taken out of the rock matrix.
108
340000
4000
06:02
This was first discovered in 1859.
109
344000
2000
06:04
This is a photograph by Franz Hueber.
110
346000
2000
06:06
This photograph's taken 1950s in Saudi Arabia.
111
348000
3000
06:09
420 million years ago, this organism existed.
112
351000
4000
06:13
It was called Prototaxites.
113
355000
2000
06:15
Prototaxites, laying down, was about three feet tall.
114
357000
4000
06:19
The tallest plants on Earth at that time were less than two feet.
115
361000
5000
06:24
Dr. Boyce, at the University of Chicago,
116
366000
4000
06:28
published an article in the Journal of Geology
117
370000
3000
06:31
this past year determining that Prototaxites was a giant fungus,
118
373000
6000
06:37
a giant mushroom.
119
379000
2000
06:39
Across the landscapes of Earth were dotted these giant mushrooms.
120
381000
4000
06:43
All across most land masses.
121
385000
3000
06:46
And these existed for tens of millions of years.
122
388000
3000
06:49
Now, we've had several extinction events, and as we march forward --
123
391000
4000
06:53
65 million years ago -- most of you know about it --
124
395000
3000
06:56
we had an asteroid impact.
125
398000
2000
06:58
The Earth was struck by an asteroid,
126
400000
2000
07:00
a huge amount of debris was jettisoned into the atmosphere.
127
402000
4000
07:04
Sunlight was cut off, and fungi inherited the Earth.
128
406000
5000
07:09
Those organisms that paired with fungi were rewarded,
129
411000
4000
07:13
because fungi do not need light.
130
415000
2000
07:16
More recently, at Einstein University,
131
418000
2000
07:18
they just determined that fungi use radiation as a source of energy,
132
420000
5000
07:23
much like plants use light.
133
425000
2000
07:25
So, the prospect of fungi existing on other planets elsewhere,
134
427000
4000
07:29
I think, is a forgone conclusion,
135
431000
2000
07:31
at least in my own mind.
136
433000
2000
07:33
The largest organism in the world is in Eastern Oregon.
137
435000
3000
07:36
I couldn't miss it. It was 2,200 acres in size:
138
438000
3000
07:39
2,200 acres in size, 2,000 years old.
139
441000
4000
07:43
The largest organism on the planet is a mycelial mat, one cell wall thick.
140
445000
4000
07:47
How is it that this organism can be so large,
141
449000
5000
07:52
and yet be one cell wall thick,
142
454000
2000
07:54
whereas we have five or six skin layers that protect us?
143
456000
2000
07:56
The mycelium, in the right conditions, produces a mushroom --
144
458000
3000
07:59
it bursts through with such ferocity that it can break asphalt.
145
461000
3000
08:02
We were involved with several experiments.
146
464000
3000
08:05
I'm going to show you six, if I can,
147
467000
2000
08:07
solutions for helping to save the world.
148
469000
2000
08:09
Battelle Laboratories and I joined up in Bellingham, Washington.
149
471000
3000
08:12
There were four piles saturated with diesel and other petroleum waste:
150
474000
4000
08:16
one was a control pile; one pile was treated with enzymes;
151
478000
4000
08:20
one pile was treated with bacteria;
152
482000
4000
08:24
and our pile we inoculated with mushroom mycelium.
153
486000
2000
08:26
The mycelium absorbs the oil.
154
488000
3000
08:29
The mycelium is producing enzymes --
155
491000
2000
08:31
peroxidases -- that break carbon-hydrogen bonds.
156
493000
3000
08:34
These are the same bonds that hold hydrocarbons together.
157
496000
3000
08:37
So, the mycelium becomes saturated with the oil,
158
499000
3000
08:40
and then, when we returned six weeks later,
159
502000
3000
08:43
all the tarps were removed,
160
505000
2000
08:45
all the other piles were dead, dark and stinky.
161
507000
2000
08:47
We came back to our pile, it was covered
162
509000
2000
08:49
with hundreds of pounds of oyster mushrooms,
163
511000
1000
08:50
and the color changed to a light form.
164
512000
3000
08:53
The enzymes remanufactured the hydrocarbons
165
515000
3000
08:56
into carbohydrates -- fungal sugars.
166
518000
2000
08:58
Some of these mushrooms are very happy mushrooms.
167
520000
2000
09:00
They're very large.
168
522000
2000
09:02
They're showing how much nutrition that they could've obtained.
169
524000
2000
09:04
But something else happened, which was an epiphany in my life.
170
526000
4000
09:08
They sporulated, the spores attract insects,
171
530000
2000
09:10
the insects laid eggs, eggs became larvae.
172
532000
4000
09:14
Birds then came, bringing in seeds,
173
536000
2000
09:16
and our pile became an oasis of life.
174
538000
2000
09:18
Whereas the other three piles were dead, dark and stinky,
175
540000
4000
09:22
and the PAH's -- the aromatic hydrocarbons --
176
544000
3000
09:25
went from 10,000 parts per million to less than 200 in eight weeks.
177
547000
4000
09:29
The last image we don't have.
178
551000
3000
09:32
The entire pile was a green berm of life.
179
554000
2000
09:34
These are gateway species,
180
556000
2000
09:36
vanguard species that open the door for other biological communities.
181
558000
5000
09:41
So I invented burlap sacks, bunker spawn --
182
563000
4000
09:45
and putting the mycelium -- using storm blown debris,
183
567000
3000
09:48
you can take these burlap sacks and put them downstream
184
570000
3000
09:51
from a farm that's producing E. coli, or other wastes,
185
573000
3000
09:54
or a factory with chemical toxins,
186
576000
2000
09:56
and it leads to habitat restoration.
187
578000
2000
09:58
So, we set up a site in Mason County, Washington,
188
580000
3000
10:01
and we've seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of coliforms.
189
583000
3000
10:04
And I'll show you a graph here.
190
586000
3000
10:07
This is a logarithmic scale, 10 to the eighth power.
191
589000
2000
10:09
There's more than a 100 million colonies per gram,
192
591000
3000
10:12
and 10 to the third power is around 1,000.
193
594000
3000
10:15
In 48 hours to 72 hours, these three mushroom species
194
597000
4000
10:19
reduced the amount of coliform bacteria 10,000 times.
195
601000
4000
10:23
Think of the implications.
196
605000
2000
10:25
This is a space-conservative method that uses storm debris --
197
607000
4000
10:29
and we can guarantee that we will have storms every year.
198
611000
2000
10:31
So, this one mushroom, in particular, has drawn our interest over time.
199
613000
5000
10:36
This is my wife Dusty,
200
618000
2000
10:38
with a mushroom called Fomitopsis officinalis -- Agarikon.
201
620000
2000
10:40
It's a mushroom exclusive to the old-growth forest
202
622000
3000
10:43
that Dioscorides first described in 65 A.D.
203
625000
2000
10:45
as a treatment against consumption.
204
627000
2000
10:47
This mushroom grows in Washington State, Oregon,
205
629000
3000
10:50
northern California, British Columbia, now thought to be extinct in Europe.
206
632000
3000
10:53
May not seem that large --
207
635000
2000
10:55
let's get closer.
208
637000
2000
10:57
This is extremely rare fungus.
209
639000
2000
10:59
Our team -- and we have a team of experts that go out --
210
641000
3000
11:02
we went out 20 times in the old-growth forest last year.
211
644000
3000
11:05
We found one sample to be able to get into culture.
212
647000
3000
11:08
Preserving the genome of these fungi in the old-growth forest
213
650000
4000
11:12
I think is absolutely critical for human health.
214
654000
3000
11:15
I've been involved with the U.S. Defense Department BioShield program.
215
657000
4000
11:19
We submitted over 300 samples of mushrooms that were boiled in hot water,
216
661000
3000
11:22
and mycelium harvesting these extracellular metabolites.
217
664000
3000
11:25
And a few years ago,
218
667000
3000
11:28
we received these results.
219
670000
2000
11:31
We have three different strains of Agarikon mushrooms
220
673000
5000
11:36
that were highly active against poxviruses.
221
678000
2000
11:38
Dr. Earl Kern, who's a smallpox expert
222
680000
3000
11:41
of the U.S. Defense Department, states that any compounds
223
683000
2000
11:43
that have a selectivity index of two or more are active.
224
685000
3000
11:46
10 or greater are considered to be very active.
225
688000
2000
11:48
Our mushroom strains were in the highly active range.
226
690000
4000
11:52
There's a vetted press release that you can read --
227
694000
3000
11:55
it's vetted by DOD --
228
697000
2000
11:57
if you Google "Stamets" and "smallpox."
229
699000
2000
11:59
Or you can go to NPR.org and listen to a live interview.
230
701000
3000
12:02
So, encouraged by this, naturally we went to flu viruses.
231
704000
5000
12:07
And so, for the first time, I am showing this.
232
709000
3000
12:10
We have three different strains of Agarikon mushrooms
233
712000
3000
12:13
highly active against flu viruses.
234
715000
2000
12:15
Here's the selectivity index numbers --
235
717000
2000
12:17
against pox, you saw 10s and 20s -- now against flu viruses,
236
719000
3000
12:20
compared to the ribavirin controls,
237
722000
2000
12:22
we have an extraordinarily high activity.
238
724000
3000
12:25
And we're using a natural extract
239
727000
2000
12:27
within the same dosage window as a pure pharmaceutical.
240
729000
2000
12:29
We tried it against flu A viruses -- H1N1, H3N2 --
241
731000
4000
12:33
as well as flu B viruses.
242
735000
2000
12:35
So then we tried a blend,
243
737000
2000
12:37
and in a blend combination we tried it against H5N1,
244
739000
4000
12:41
and we got greater than 1,000 selectivity index.
245
743000
4000
12:45
(Applause)
246
747000
1000
12:46
I then think that we can make the argument
247
748000
5000
12:51
that we should save the old-growth forest
248
753000
2000
12:53
as a matter of national defense.
249
755000
4000
12:57
(Applause)
250
759000
3000
13:00
I became interested in entomopathogenic fungi --
251
762000
4000
13:04
fungi that kill insects.
252
766000
2000
13:06
Our house was being destroyed by carpenter ants.
253
768000
2000
13:08
So, I went to the EPA homepage, and they were recommending studies
254
770000
3000
13:11
with metarhizium species of a group of fungi
255
773000
3000
13:14
that kill carpenter ants, as well as termites.
256
776000
3000
13:17
I did something that nobody else had done.
257
779000
2000
13:19
I actually chased the mycelium, when it stopped producing spores.
258
781000
3000
13:22
These are spores -- this is in their spores.
259
784000
2000
13:24
I was able to morph the culture
260
786000
2000
13:26
into a non-sporulating form.
261
788000
2000
13:28
And so the industry has spent over 100 million dollars
262
790000
3000
13:31
specifically on bait stations to prevent termites from eating your house.
263
793000
4000
13:35
But the insects aren't stupid,
264
797000
2000
13:37
and they would avoid the spores when they came close,
265
799000
2000
13:39
and so I morphed the cultures into a non-sporulating form.
266
801000
3000
13:42
And I got my daughter's Barbie doll dish,
267
804000
2000
13:44
I put it right where a bunch of carpenter ants
268
806000
2000
13:46
were making debris fields, every day,
269
808000
2000
13:48
in my house, and the ants were attracted to the mycelium,
270
810000
4000
13:52
because there's no spores.
271
814000
2000
13:54
They gave it to the queen.
272
816000
1000
13:55
One week later, I had no sawdust piles whatsoever.
273
817000
3000
13:58
And then -- a delicate dance between dinner and death --
274
820000
6000
14:04
the mycelium is consumed by the ants,
275
826000
3000
14:07
they become mummified, and, boing, a mushroom pops out of their head.
276
829000
4000
14:11
(Laughter)
277
833000
1000
14:12
Now after sporulation, the spores repel.
278
834000
4000
14:16
So, the house is no longer suitable for invasion.
279
838000
4000
14:20
So, you have a near-permanent solution for reinvasion of termites.
280
842000
4000
14:24
And so my house came down, I received my first patent
281
846000
3000
14:27
against carpenter ants, termites and fire ants.
282
849000
2000
14:29
Then we tried extracts, and lo and behold,
283
851000
3000
14:32
we can steer insects to different directions.
284
854000
2000
14:34
This has huge implications.
285
856000
2000
14:36
I then received my second patent -- and this is a big one.
286
858000
2000
14:38
It's been called an Alexander Graham Bell patent.
287
860000
2000
14:40
It covers over 200,000 species.
288
862000
2000
14:42
This is the most disruptive technology --
289
864000
2000
14:44
I've been told by executives of the pesticide industry --
290
866000
3000
14:47
that they have ever witnessed.
291
869000
2000
14:49
This could totally revamp the pesticide industries throughout the world.
292
871000
3000
14:52
You could fly 100 Ph.D. students under the umbrella of this concept,
293
874000
4000
14:56
because my supposition is that entomopathogenic fungi,
294
878000
3000
14:59
prior to sporulation, attract the very insects
295
881000
2000
15:01
that are otherwise repelled by those spores.
296
883000
3000
15:04
And so I came up with a Life Box, because I needed a delivery system.
297
886000
4000
15:08
The Life Box -- you're gonna be getting a DVD of the TED conference --
298
890000
4000
15:12
you add soil, you add water,
299
894000
2000
15:14
you have mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi as well as spores,
300
896000
5000
15:19
like of the Agarikon mushroom.
301
901000
2000
15:21
The seeds then are mothered by this mycelium.
302
903000
3000
15:24
And then you put tree seeds in here,
303
906000
3000
15:27
and then you end up growing -- potentially --
304
909000
3000
15:30
an old-growth forest from a cardboard box.
305
912000
2000
15:32
I want to reinvent the delivery system,
306
914000
3000
15:35
and the use of cardboard around the world,
307
917000
2000
15:37
so they become ecological footprints.
308
919000
2000
15:39
If there's a YouTube-like site that you could put up,
309
921000
3000
15:42
you could make it interactive, zip code specific --
310
924000
2000
15:44
where people could join together,
311
926000
2000
15:46
and through satellite imaging systems,
312
928000
2000
15:48
through Virtual Earth or Google Earth,
313
930000
2000
15:50
you could confirm carbon credits are being sequestered
314
932000
2000
15:52
by the trees that are coming through Life Boxes.
315
934000
3000
15:55
You could take a cardboard box delivering shoes,
316
937000
3000
15:58
you could add water -- I developed this for the refugee community --
317
940000
4000
16:02
corns, beans and squash and onions.
318
944000
2000
16:04
I took several containers -- my wife said, if I could do this, anybody could --
319
946000
4000
16:08
and I ended up growing a seed garden.
320
950000
2000
16:10
Then you harvest the seeds --
321
952000
2000
16:12
and thank you, Eric Rasmussen, for your help on this --
322
954000
4000
16:16
and then you're harvesting the seed garden.
323
958000
2000
16:18
Then you can harvest the kernels, and then you just need a few kernels.
324
960000
4000
16:22
I add mycelium to it, and then I inoculate the corncobs.
325
964000
4000
16:26
Now, three corncobs, no other grain --
326
968000
3000
16:29
lots of mushrooms begin to form.
327
971000
2000
16:31
Too many withdrawals from the carbon bank,
328
973000
3000
16:34
and so this population will be shut down.
329
976000
2000
16:36
But watch what happens here.
330
978000
2000
16:40
The mushrooms then are harvested,
331
982000
2000
16:42
but very importantly,
332
984000
4000
16:46
the mycelium has converted the cellulose into fungal sugars.
333
988000
3000
16:49
And so I thought, how could we address the energy crisis in this country?
334
991000
5000
16:56
And we came up with Econol.
335
998000
3000
16:59
Generating ethanol from cellulose using mycelium as an intermediary --
336
1001000
5000
17:04
and you gain all the benefits that I've described to you already.
337
1006000
3000
17:07
But to go from cellulose to ethanol is ecologically unintelligent,
338
1009000
5000
17:12
and I think that we need to be econologically intelligent
339
1014000
4000
17:16
about the generation of fuels.
340
1018000
2000
17:18
So, we build the carbon banks on the planet, renew the soils.
341
1020000
3000
17:21
These are a species that we need to join with.
342
1023000
3000
17:24
I think engaging mycelium can help save the world.
343
1026000
5000
17:29
Thank you very much.
344
1031000
2000
17:31
(Applause)
345
1033000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Paul Stamets - MycologistPaul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds.
Why you should listen
Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets' research is the Northwest's native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.
There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet.
Paul Stamets | Speaker | TED.com