Why are we more closely related to fungi than plants?
Moment of Um
American Public Media
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
All living things on Earth are related. To help keep track of how close those relationships are, scientists organize life on Earth into groups using a system called taxonomy. Sometimes, taxonomy can be surprising – like, did you know that humans are more closely related to mushrooms and other fungi than we are to plants? How does that work? We asked microbiologist Christine Salomon to help us find the answer.
Got a question that’s in a class by itself? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll find an answer that’ll really grow on you.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Chances are pretty good that you're hearing my voice right now in the car. |
| 0:05.1 | Well, you're not alone. |
| 0:07.1 | It turns out that the car is an ideal place for learning, and that is science fact. |
| 0:12.7 | Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, |
| 0:15.0 | we teamed up with the Science Museum of Minnesota to study how parents and kids interact |
| 0:19.9 | as they listen in the car. |
| 0:21.8 | And we're going to do a live webinar on Thursday, May 8th to talk about what we learn from the study. |
| 0:27.8 | We'll give you tips on sparking more curiosity, developing scientific inquiry skills, and more. |
| 0:34.1 | All while driving to school or soccer. |
| 0:36.5 | So, join us live on YouTube on Thursday, May 8th at 3 p.m. Eastern. |
| 0:41.5 | You can find all the info at brainson.org or head to our YouTube channel at BrainsOn show. |
| 0:51.9 | From the brains behind Brains On, this is the moment of um. |
| 0:59.3 | Moment of um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Anna Goldfield. |
| 1:06.6 | Um. |
| 1:16.8 | I'm not what you would call the most organized person. |
| 1:20.1 | I just have a hard time remembering where I left things. |
| 1:25.2 | Sometimes I forget where I put my favorite pen or my phone or the TV remote. |
| 1:29.0 | One time, I lost a peanut butter and pickle sandwich for like 45 minutes and then found it again on my bookshelf. So I'm always really impressed when people |
| 1:34.6 | have good systems for organizing stuff. And you know what I think is the most impressive bit |
| 1:39.7 | of organization ever? Taxonomy. That's the naming system that scientists use to group all living things in different |
| 1:47.1 | categories, so you can see how they're related to one another. |
| 1:50.7 | It's like a family tree, but for all life on earth. |
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