Natures wonders: fungal. hyphae electrical signal (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, April 14, 2022, 21:09 (735 days ago) @ David Turell

Possible communication:

https://mindmatters.ai/2022/04/not-just-plants-even-fungi-like-mushrooms-talk-to-each-o...

"Fungi send electrical signals to one another through hyphae—long, filamentous tendrils that the organisms use to grow and explore. The Guardian reports that previous research shows that the number of electrical impulses traveling through hyphae, sometimes likened to neurons, increases when fungi encounter new sources of food, and that this suggests it’s possible that fungi use this “language” to let each other know about new food sources or injury.

"That would make fungi, one of the kingdoms of life, similar to plants in that they can send chemical messages.

"When researchers studied that, they discovered that the messages were somewhat complex:

“'A fungal word length averaged over four species […] is 5.97 which is of the same range as an average word length in some human languages, e.g. 4.8 in English and 6 in Russian,” Adamatsky writes in the paper.

"NATALIA MESA, “CAN MUSHROOMS “TALK” TO EACH OTHER?” AT THE SCIENTIST (APRIL 6, 2022)

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"While researchers can agree that the patterns are not random, more study is needed before making mushroomese an official language.

“'Though interesting, the interpretation as language seems somewhat overenthusiastic, and would require far more research and testing of critical hypotheses before we see ‘Fungus’ on Google Translate,” said University of Exeter mycologist Dan Bebber, a co-author on previous studies on the phenomenon, who suggested the electrical impulses could be indicative of active nutrient foraging. My bold)

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"If we assume that nature is full of intelligence, smart systems for active nutrient foraging is roughly what we might expect of mushrooms and other fungi. Unlike plants, fungi can’t produce food from the environment via photosynthesis. And unlike animals, they can’t just hunt it down. They live on the detritus of other life forms and depend on information about where to find it.

"Given the amount of information in nature, it is not surprising that fungi communicate, as plants do, about surrounding conditions. But no, they are not talking about our lives, any more than a smart alarm system is.

"As one researcher put it, it will be a long time before we see “‘Fungus’ on Google Translate.” As in, never. In the meantime, we can enjoy the remarkable intelligence displayed in fungi."

Comment: living organisms operate on electrical impulses as well as other reactions. We needn't assume too much.