Triple organism

This is a very short clip (only about 4 minutes) which is nevertheless staggering in its implications. For 150 years, scientists assumed that a lichen is a double organism, consisting of algae (or cyanobacteria) living in symbiosis with an ascomycete fungus (or, in rare cases, a basidiomycete ditto). Recently, however, scientists realized that most lichens are *triple* organisms formed from algae (or cyanobacteria) and *both* ascomycetes and basidiomycetes. The basidiomycete component of the matrix has been overlooked for one and a half century!

Hmmm…

This opens up interesting possibilities, wouldn´t you say? And remember, we are talking about lichens, which have been studied by science for a long time. What if science doesn´t even *look* for a phenomenon? Say Bigfoot in your backyard, astrological aspects in the blue sky above, or Illuminati in the JFK administration…

Pondering.