Mushrooms Are More Like Humans Than Plants

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn how mushrooms are more like humans than plants; why your tongue isn’t a muscle; and ferret-training robot badgers.

Mushrooms are more like humans than plants by Grant Currin

More from this author. (2016, January 12). How Are Mushrooms More Similar to Humans than Plants?» Science ABC. Science ABC. https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/how-are-mushrooms-more-similar-to-humans-than-plants.html
Inglis-Arkell, E. (2012, September 7). Why are mushrooms more like humans than they are like plants? io9. https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-are-mushrooms-more-like-humans-than-they-are-like-p-5940434
Steenkamp, E. T., Wright, J., & Baldauf, S. L. (2005). The Protistan Origins of Animals and Fungi. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 23(1), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msj011
Baldauf, S. L., & Palmer, J. D. (1993). Animals and fungi are each other’s closest relatives: congruent evidence from multiple proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 90(24), 11558–11562. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.90.24.11558
Burki, F., Roger, A. J., Brown, M. W., & Simpson, A. G. B. (2020). The New Tree of Eukaryotes. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 35(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.08.008

Why do people say the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Dave)

Julia Calderone,Ben Fogelson. (2014, August 15). Fact or Fiction?: The Tongue Is the Strongest Muscle in the Body. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-the-tongue-is-the-strongest-muscle-in-the-body/
Katherine Harmon Courage. (2014, January 10). Octopus Arms, Human Tongues Intertwine for Science. Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/octopus-arms-human-tongues-intertwine-for-science/
The Tongue - Muscles - Innervation - Vasculature - TeachMeAnatomy. (2015). Teachmeanatomy.info. https://teachmeanatomy.info/head/muscles/tongue/

Wildlife conservationists tried to train black-footed ferrets with robots by Cameron Duke

Andrews, R. M. (1989, August 26). “Robo-Badger” Is Scary, But Do Friendly Ferrets Think So? AP NEWS; Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/3f45b4ae40266310acf8e4fffc70f01a
Biggins, D. E., Vargas, A., Godbey, J. L., & Anderson, S. H. (1999). Influence of prerelease experience on reintroduced black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes). Biological Conservation, 89(2), 121–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3207(98)00158-x
Edwards, M. C., Ford, C., Hoy, J. M., FitzGibbon, S., & Murray, P. J. (2021). How to train your wildlife: A review of predator avoidance training. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 234, 105170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105170
Heim, M. (2011, February). Survival Training, Ferret Style. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/survival-training-ferret-style-32562/
Saving the Black-footed Ferret. (2021). Biologicaldiversity.org. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/black-footed_ferret/index.html

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/mushrooms-are-more-like-humans-than-plants

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from
0:04.8	Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Gough. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about how
0:09.1	mushrooms are more like humans than plants and how wildlife conservationists are training ferrets using robots.
0:16.0	We'll also answer a listener question about why people say the tongue is the strongest
0:20.1	muscle in the human body. Let's satisfy some curiosity. Of all the produce out there,
0:25.6	mushrooms might be the weirdest. They've got those weird gills, that spongy
0:31.3	consistency, and once they're cooked cooked they taste more like meat than
0:35.4	vegetables. Well that might be because they're not vegetables at all. They're fungi
0:40.7	or do you say fungi doesn't't matter to me. And believe it or not, fungi are more closely related to humans than they are to plants.
0:50.0	Here's how we know. See, people have been preoccupied with comparing living things for a really, really long time.
0:59.0	Aristotle thought the differences came down to souls.
1:02.0	Later, people like Carl Anayas came up with the differences came down to souls.
1:03.0	Later, people like Carl Anayas came up with a slightly more scientific way of classifying
1:08.0	organisms.
1:09.4	And good old Charles Darwin introduced people to the idea that living things might all be related.
1:16.4	Those systems and theories were remarkable achievements in their own ways, but they tended
1:21.6	to use pretty superficial evidence, like what organisms looked like or how they acted.
1:28.0	It wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that researchers were finally able to really understand how the tree of life has branched
1:35.9	over the last, you know, 3.7 billion years. By comparing the DNA and RNA of different species, researchers could figure out just how related
1:46.4	they really were.
1:48.0	And that led to a revolution in how we understand the tree of life. It's no secret that our closest cousins are other primates.
1:56.7	Humans and chimpanzees share a great, great, great, great, etc. Grandmother
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Warner Bros. Discovery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Warner Bros. Discovery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.