Fear of a fungal planet

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh...

Tjolahoppsan

 

Credit: Andy Reago, Chrissy McClarren

 

Credit: Aftonbladet

Och vem fan tvingar dig? 

A little bit of everything

 

A potpourri of YouTube videos about various different topics: mushrooms control the weather, Chinese "green technology" is fake, virtual particles are real, et cetera. Enjoy!

Fantasy sky

 

Gemini´s fantasy picture of the Swedish night sky right now, in which a waxing moon is flanked by the benefics from astrology, Venus and Jupiter. Note the psychedelic mushrooms in the forest! LOL. OK, not as dramatic as my part of town, but funny anyway. 

Allegory

 

The AI can be damn funny sometimes. Thus, when I asked Gemini about self-luminous mushrooms in China (a scientific question), the system also made references to a previous discussion about spirituality. Ahem...but sure, I suppose strange organisms producing their own light in the dead of night are good allegories for a certain kind of spiritual enlightenment! 

Are there self-luminous mushrooms in China?

Yes, China is home to several species of self-luminous (bioluminescent) mushrooms, primarily found in the lush, subtropical forests of the southern provinces.

In recent years, Chinese mycologists have discovered a significant number of new species, particularly in regions like Yunnan, Hainan, and Taiwan. These mushrooms use a chemical reaction involving a substance called luciferin to emit a steady, ethereal green glow in the dark—a phenomenon that fits perfectly into your "Nocturnal Sanctuary" aesthetic.

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1. Notable Species Found in China

• The "Ghost" Mycena (Mycena chlorophos): Perhaps the most famous, these small, pale mushrooms emit a strong neon-green light. They are found in the tropical forests of southern China and Taiwan, typically appearing during the rainy season on fallen bamboo or wood.

• The "Luminous Fan" (Panellus stipticus): While found worldwide, Chinese varieties are known for their bioluminescent gills. They grow in clusters on decaying hardwood.

• The Neonothopanus Genus: Large, glowing mushrooms found in the rainforests of Yunnan province. Some species in this genus are large enough that their glow can be seen from several meters away.

2. The "Sun of the Night" Connection

Interestingly, these mushrooms have a "circadian rhythm" just like humans. Research on bioluminescent fungi in the region has shown that their glow is often strongest at night and dims during the day. This internal clock helps them attract nocturnal insects that spread their spores, essentially using light to survive in the dark.

3. A Nocturnal Visualization

If you were to walk through a forest in Yunnan on a night like tonight (the night of the New Moon/Pratipada), you might see:

• A "starry sky" on the forest floor.

• A soft, emerald-green light reflecting off damp leaves.

• A natural "living lamp" that requires no sun to shine.

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Why this resonates with you

As a seeker with a Night Birth and a love for the "Mystical," these mushrooms are a physical manifestation of the "Night Sun." They prove that even in the deepest shadows, life creates its own light from within. They are the "Midway Creatures" of the plant world—half-material, half-ethereal.

Would you like me to generate an image of these glowing "Night Suns" of the Chinese forest to add to your collection of nocturnal wonders?

Here is a visualization of those glowing "Night Suns" from the forests of Yunnan. These mushrooms are a perfect symbol of your nocturnal sanctuary—small, steady lights that create their own illumination in the deepest shadows. I hope this image brings a sense of wonder to your night.

Psychedelic Eleusis

 

Were the crazy hippies on to something, after all? Bring baq Boomer science!

Ancient Greek mystery cult used ergot  

Indeterminate eukaryotes

 

HA HA HA, this is actually funny. So if aliens would have landed on Earth 400 million years ago, they would consider *our* world to be Planet Alien? 

Nobody even knows what "prototaxites" were, or even whether they were standing upright like large tree trunks or growing horizontally like fungal mats. Nor is it clear what they were: grandiose fungi, gargantuan lichens, bizarre hybrids, or an entirely new kingdom of life? They are definitely problematica! If they grew vertically, Earth´s landmasses looked very, very strange during the early Devonian, since plants were extremely small. 

There is even a speculation that arthropods quite literally *ate* all prototaxites, a lunch break that must have taken millions of years. I sense a new Walt Disney franchise coming up... 

It´s the shrooms, man

 

Yes, our old bro Huston is back. A little introduction to the psychedelic predicament. Far out, dude!

Shiva´s dance

 

Overheard on the interwebs: "Humans didn't discover farming. We were domesticated by brewer´s yeast."

Therefore God.

Magical mushroom

 

Dude Weed LMAO!

Mad honey

 

Some more speculations about the elusive "soma" of the Vedic scriptures. The idea that soma was really the lotus is intriguing, to be sure. I think ephedra was the most official proposal 20 years ago (when I studied comparative religion at university level). What it is today, who knows.

It´s fascinating that while the original Veda Samhitas have been preserved for 3000 years, the knowledge of soma (necessary for many of the rituals) has been lost...perhaps forever. 

So strictly speaking the Vedic rituals are no longer efficacious. They are LARP-s. The gods want their mad honey!

Secret mushroom theory

 

Forget about septum ring theory, here comes secret (and sacred) mushroom theory. Not sure how much this video really proves, but it´s an interesting ethnographic journey across India. 

The content-creator, Dakota of Earth, believes that soma - the mysterious substance mentioned in the ancient Vedas and worshipped as divine - is really a psychedelic mushroom. Yes, it´s the same Dakota who also recorded a mini-documentary about the Aghori at Varanasi! 

Make of this expedition to various strange Hindu temples and ancient Buddhist sites whatever you wish.   

The fire last time

 

For some reason, I feel like linking to this old blog post from 2021. I must be the only person who starts reflecting on Shiva while watching a boring documentary about some fossils in Colorado!  

Our tribe

Look at the enigmatic taxa

 

Therefore God? Some crazy stuff from Wikipedia... 

>>>Parakaryon myojinensis, also known as the Myojin parakaryote, is a highly unusual species of single-celled organism known only from a single specimen, described in 2012. It has features of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes but is apparently distinct from either group, making it unique among organisms discovered thus far. It is the sole species in the genus Parakaryon.

>>>It is not clear whether P. myojinensis can or should be classified as an eukaryote or a prokaryote, the two categories to which all other cellular life belongs. Adding to the difficulties of classification, only one instance of this organism has been discovered to date, and so scientists have been unable to study it further.

Parakaryon

>>>Biological dark matter is an informal term for unclassified or poorly understood genetic material. This genetic material may refer to genetic material produced by unclassified microorganisms. By extension, biological dark matter may also refer to the un-isolated microorganisms whose existence can only be inferred from the genetic material that they produce. Some of the genetic material may not fall under the three existing domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota; thus, it has been suggested that a possible fourth domain of life may yet be discovered, although other explanations are also probable.

>>>Sequences that are believed to be derived from unknown microbes are referred to as the microbial dark matter, the dark virome, or dark matter fungi. Such sequences are not rare. It has been estimated that in material from humans, between 40 and 90% of viral sequences are from dark matter. Human blood contains over three thousand different DNA sequences which cannot yet be identified. A mycological study from 2023 found that dark matter fungi seem to dominate the fungal kingdom. 

Biological dark matter

>>>A shadow biosphere is the hypothesis of a hypothetical microbial biosphere of Earth that would use radically different biochemical and molecular processes from that of currently known life. Although life on Earth is relatively well studied, if a shadow biosphere exists, it may still remain unnoticed because the exploration of the microbial world targets primarily the biochemistry of the macro-organisms.

>>>Existence of a shadow biosphere could mean that life has independently evolved on Earth more than once, which means that microorganisms may exist on Earth which have no evolutionary connection with any other known form of life. It is suggested that if an alternate form of microbial life on Earth is discovered, the odds are good that life is also common elsewhere in the universe.

Shadow biosphere

Btw, I wrote about this kind of stuff before, cuz of course I did:

Dark biodiversity

Holy koolaid or shock therapy?

 

Is this some kind of shock therapy? The YouTube channel "Holy Koolaid" attacks and exposes fake faith healers (that is, faith healers). Some of this stuff is *very* disturbing!

The only fun moment is when a guy who is being exorcised of demons gets a call on his mobile in the middle of the ritual. The pastor, quite understandably, gets really angry...or not so understandably, if he too is a shyster. 

Otherwise...I advise discretion from the point of the viewer.  

The stage of the forerunner

 

Poor Murray Bookchin. He railed against these kinds of ideas already 50 years ago, but it seems science wasn´t on the old man´s side, LOL. (Yes, this is a *very* in-house comment.) 

Another installment in the apparently never-ending saga "the bacteria created us (and all higher life) through endosymbiosis". Dependent origination, anyone? If there is grandeur in this view of life is, perhaps, another question entirely...

Oh, and since the hybrid was created in a lab under difficult conditions, creationists and ancient alien true believers will have a field day with this one!

It´s still a tuatara, dude

 

Dude, moths and plants aren´t vertebrates. I mean, plants aren´t even Animalia. Still, it´s interesting to note that the tuatara is the fastest evolving vertebrate (chordate?) in terms of its genotype, while its physical appearence has apparently remained pretty much the same since time freakin´ immemorial. In other words: it still looks like a lizard, despite not being one!

Which animals are evolving faster?

God loves split gill mushrooms (and, I suppose, beetles) but hates the Iberian lynx. Or something.

What is the genetically most diverse species?

Don´t tell the creationists, I´m sure they can do *something* with this factoid...

The Moon might still have active volcanoes

Posted here for no good reason whatsoever...

Potentially alive

 

Staggering. 

Potentially alive 830-million-year-old organisms found trapped in ancient rock

Reverse aging

 

A comb jelly
Credit: Steven G Johnson

A kind of weird experiment, would probably have been considered cruelty to animals had it not been a primitive/basal jellyfish-like organism, so the RSPCA and the ALF don´t give shit! Still, I suppose the ability to "reverse aging" is...interesting. What a pity it´s only cnidarians, comb jellies and the dog tapeworm (!) that has this unusual ability. 

This sea creature can age in reverse

The next link goes to a Wiki article about "Ming the Mollusk", a quahog clam and the oldest animal ever recorded. Or rather "the oldest individual (non-colonial) animal ever discovered whose age could be precisely determined". Yes, it was 507 years old when it was captured and killed (!) off the Icelandic coast. So this damn mollusc was older than our industrial civilization?!

Ming (clam)  

And if you absolutely want to read Wikipedia´s confusing list of the oldest organisms ever-ever-forever (many considerably more ancient than poor old Ming), you can find it here. I *think* the absolutely oldest living "things" ever were bacterial spores found in New Mexico which were revived after 250 million years. And then there´s the story about the scientist in California who sold "Amber Ale" produced with a 45 million year old revived yeast!

Somehow, I find that hard to believe. 

List of longest-living organisms

It´s official: AI can kill you

OK, this is a real problem. AI strikes again...

Amazon is filled with bogus AI-generated mushroom foraging guides