The Good and Bad in Fungi
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2020
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Why are some fungi helpful and others harmful?" asks Paul Glaister in Reading. Rutherford and Fry try to outdo each other with fungal top trumps to get to grips with the answer.
Decomposition ecologist Lynne Boddy, Professor of Microbial Ecology at Cardiff University, helps Hannah calculate the amount of dead plant material we’d be buried in across the globe, if we didn’t have fungi to recycle it. And she describes her first fungal encounter in her student flat which was riddled with dry rot, and explains how without fungi, we wouldn’t have plants.
On Adam’s team is Curator of Mycology, Dr. Bryn Dentiger, at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Bryn tells Adam that he can’t think of a single food that doesn’t have some association with fungus. And the links are mostly positive rather than just mould on the top of your jam or rotten fruit in your fridge. He introduces Adam to the Humungous Fungus – the biggest living organism on Earth - and they get excited at the prospect of 20,000 different fungal sexes.
The pros and cons of fungi don’t stop there. Microbiologist Dr. Ada Hagan, in Michigan lists some of the fungal diseases we’re prone to, and the numerous drugs derived from fungi that help treat a whole host of common diseases.
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford Producer: Fiona Roberts
A BBC Audio Science Unit production, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, Curios. Welcome to our Christmas special, even though by definition you are podcast listeners |
| 0:18.3 | and you're almost certainly not listening at Christmas. |
| 0:21.3 | Yes, indeed we're not even recording this at Christmas. We're actually recording this |
| 0:25.7 | in the middle of November and by the time this goes out we've got no idea what the world's |
| 0:31.2 | going to look like, no idea. I mean given 2020's track records, it's probably a meteor. |
| 0:37.1 | It's going to come hit. |
| 0:39.9 | A disaster is going to be flawless. We also have got a very Christmasy snack table in front |
| 0:46.9 | of us that our producer, Fee has provided us with BitRandom, we'll explain why. Marmite |
| 0:52.2 | crisps. No thanks. Cheese? No that, yes okay. Has it been in the fridge today? |
| 0:57.8 | Some of the time. I think that was sitting on your desk for a good eight hours today. |
| 1:03.2 | You've got to let it breathe. Yeah. There's also, I noticed that it's migrated towards you |
| 1:07.5 | rather than from the centre of this table, a nice bottle of wine. This mail may not feature |
| 1:12.7 | in the second part of our pod chat, but first enjoy the show. I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. |
| 1:24.7 | And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday mysteries. |
| 1:29.1 | And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. I like it. |
| 1:35.4 | Welcome to a special festive episode of Curious Cases today. And to really get us into the |
| 1:43.4 | holiday spirit, we are joined today in the studio by a plethora of good things. Yes, we've got a |
| 1:48.8 | delicious platter of cheese, of wine. We've got a single packet of Marmite crisps and some |
| 1:56.1 | some mushroom patty. Well that sounds sounds delicious. I think I've probably passed |
| 2:00.0 | on the mushroom patty there if that's okay. Did you bring these things in Adam because |
| 2:03.7 | nothing says Christmas more than joy and indulgence and good times are the people that you love? |
... |
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