Merlin Sheldrake+

Merlin Sheldrake talks about fungi to the UK Parliament Science, Technology & Innovation Committee

On Wednesday 7 February 2024, the cross party committee of UK MPs, the Science, Innovation & Technology Select Committee held a one-off session looking at how the remarkable and diverse properties of fungi can be harnessed to improve human health, tackle environmental and engineering challenges and increase food security. Merlin Sheldrake was one of the witnesses interviewed about the ways we can partner with fungi to adapt to life on a damaged planet.

Merlin Sheldrake on BBC Breakfast talking about the film Fungi: Web of Life, February 2nd, 2024

Fungi: Web of Life is a film about the ways that fungi have shaped life on Earth for over a billion years, and how we might partner with them to adapt to the radical change of our times. It's narrated by Björk, who speaks the story with extraordinary magic and sensitivity. It features astonishing fungal time lapse photography from some of the best fungal photographers working today, including Steve Axford, Patrick Hickey, and Wim van Egmond. Much of this footage depicts aspects of fungal life that have never been captured in such high spatial and temporal resolution before.

Fungi: Web of Life | Björk explains how fungi decompose wood

A sequence from the upcoming movie, Fungi: Web of Life, in which Björk explains how fungi decompose wood. Fungi are metabolic wizards, but of their many chemical achievements, one of the most impressive is the ability of certain fungi to break down the lignin in wood. These fungi have forever changed the way that carbon journeys through its earthly cycles. Timelapse footage of decomposition is by Steven Axford (Planet Fungi). Note the slime moulds shooting across the scene like yellow lightning.

Fungi: Web of Life | Björk explains how a fungal spore becomes a mycelial network

A sequence from the upcoming IMAX movie, Fungi: Web of Life, in which Björk explains how a fungal spore becomes a mycelial network. Footage by Wim van Egmond. The opening shot features Ester Gaya and Lee Davies in the Kew Fungarium. Presented by Merlin Sheldrake.

Fungi: Web of Life Trailer (IMAX movie, narrated by Björk, presented by Merlin Sheldrake)

Merlin Sheldrake presents an IMAX movie called Fungi: Web of Life. The film is about the ways that fungi have shaped life on Earth for over a billion years, and how we might partner with them to adapt to the radical change of our times. It's narrated by Björk, who speaks the story with inimitable magic and sensitivity. It features astonishing fungal time lapse photography from some of the best fungal photographers working today, including Steve Axford (@planet_fungi), Patrick Hickey, and Wim van Egmond. Much of this footage depicts aspects of fungal life that have never been captured in

Journey deep into a root: Laser scan with plant shown in blue and mycorrhizal fungus in red.

Mycorrhizal relationships lie at the base of the food webs that support much of life on Earth. About 500m years ago, these fungi facilitated the movement of aquatic plants on to land, fungal mycelium serving as plant root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own. Today, most plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi – from the Greek words for fungus (mykes) and root (rhiza) – which weave themselves through roots, provide plants with crucial nutrients, defend them from disease and link them in shared networks sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web”. Globally, the

Entangled Life is out now in paperback in the US and Canada!

“Wondrous” — TIME MAGAZINE, ** 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 ** “Gorgeous!” — Margaret Atwood “I love him and I love his book Entangled Life. It’s absolutely lovely.” — Russell Brand “This book is like one surprise after another” — David Byrne “Science at its most uplifting” — Jeanette Winterson “I fell in love with this book” — Michael Pollan (Bay Area Book Festival, 2020) "A must read" — Paul Stamets “Truly profound” — Andrew Weil "A true masterpiece" — George Monbiot “It is impossible to put this book down" — Hans-Ulrich Obrist "Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates

Laser scan of a root showing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (2)

Laser scan of a root. Plant in blue; symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi in red. Mycorrhizal fungi helped the ancestors of plants to move onto land. By the time the first roots evolved, the mycorrhizal association was already some 50 million years old. The word ‘mycorrhiza’ has it right. Roots (rhiza) followed fungi (mykes) into being. . Video © Merlin Sheldrake

Laser scan of a root showing arbusular mycorrhizal fungi

Laser scan of a root. Plant in blue; symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi in red. The sac-like structures form when fungal hyphae swell within plant cells, eventually bursting to release their contents. By partnering, plants gain a prosthetic fungus, and fungi gain a prosthetic plant. Both use the other to extend their reach. This scan depicts a root of Voyria tenella, a small gentian flower that has lost the ability to photosynthesise. These plants are neither green, nor do they have leaves. They grow in deeply shaded parts of the forest understory where few other plants can live. But how? Voyria,

'Nuclear comets' in mycelium of the fungus Neurospora crassa

Fungi expertly transport material around themselves. This time-lapse shows traffic through a fungal network. DNA-containing nuclei are stained green. Pulses of nuclei – ‘nuclear comets’ – travel in hordes through the mycelium (of Neurospora crassa). The role of nuclear comets is unclear. The most plausible hypothesis is that the fungus uses comets to supply growing spores with nuclei, although how the fungus is able to shuttle the nuclei so quickly remains a puzzle. Nuclear comets travel faster than material transported by microtubule ‘motors’ (dynamic filaments that behave like a cross betw

Nuclear traffic through fungal mycelium, Neurospora crassa

DNA-containing nuclei are stained green. Nuclei are carried through the fungal network both by the flow of cellular fluid, and by microtubule 'motors': dynamic filaments of protein that behave like a cross between scaffolding and escalators. Video © Patrick Hickey

Growth and sporulation of fungal mycelium, Neurospora crassa

Video © Patrick Hickey

Spore ejection from orange peel fungus, Aleuria aurantia

Some fungi, like Aleuria aurantia, synchronise spore ejection creating a jet of air—a ‘cooperatively generated wind’—which carries them around obstacles. . Video © Patrick Hickey

Spore release from an Amanita muscaria mushroom

Video © Patrick Hickey

Oyster mushrooms sprouting from Merlin Sheldrake's book, Entangled Life

Timelapse video of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus) sprouting from Merlin Sheldrake's book: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures, with accompanying song by Cosmo Sheldrake. All sounds apart from voice and double bass are recordings of the fungus devouring the book. Recordings of the fungus were made by sound ecologist Michael Prime using electrodes which detect the bioelectric activity of the fungus and control a tunable oscillator. The fluctuations in pitch and rhythm are real-time sonic representations of the activity of the fungus as it digests the