A Poetic, Mind-Bending Tour of the Fungal World
scientificamerican.com
scientificamerican.com
> Yes, I’m very fond of fermentation. Besides the fine flavors and health benefits, there’s the satisfying confusion of who —microbe or person—is domesticating who, a perspective shift that I find to be good medicine for my human-centeredness.
> If nothing decomposed, the earth would pile up kilometers-deep with the bodies of animals and plants. I remember trying to wrap my head around this idea as a child and feeling dizzy: Our lives take place in the space that decomposition leaves behind. Composers make; decomposers unmake. And unless decomposers unmake, there isn’t anything that the composers can make with.
Hem, not. Much more probably some animal would eat this corpses. Not to mention that life beings are lets say between 60% to 99% water and dried corpses would not take so much space. It is a suggestive idea, but is also wrong.
Absolutely Not. Eating is much more sophisticated than decomposition.
There is a microbial part...
but also a mechanical pre-processing with teeth, cartilaginous spikes, muscles or even rocks,
And cells evolved to produce strong acids (that could dissolve this same cells)
And a complex enzymatic system in controlled environment and temperatures. Necessary to allow its correct function.
And a net of sensors of satiety to avoid the stomach bursting, a gage reflex, a capture reflex, development of complex eyes and noses to hunt and identify food or poison, nerves...
A complex absortion of nutrients and water,
And compaction, dehydrating, filtration, classification, and release of useless stuff.
Is much, much, more than just tiny organisms breaking things.
>Our lives take place in the space that decomposition leaves behind.
Great quote
But the opposite is also not true. We do have pretty deep layers of mostly-decomposed animals and plants.
Along this line, what happens to all the radiation/energy the planet absorbs from the sun (is it radiated away, or is it somehow building up as matter)?
I will definitely read a book written by a guy like this.