Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length

Posted by tosh 5 days ago

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Comments

Comment by N_Lens 19 minutes ago

I believe Planet will talk to us if we are willing to listen. These fungal stalks behave as multistate relays: taken together, the neural net connectivity must be staggering. Can a planet be said to have achieved sentience?

- Lady Deirdre Skye, Planet Dreams, Alpha Centauri

Comment by mkl 2 hours ago

100×10^12 km is about 10.6 light years. There are about 16 other stars closer to the sun than that. It's a bit like a human body containing blood vessels with total length greater than twice the Earth's circumference.

Comment by N_Lens 17 minutes ago

Reality appears to be fractal.

Comment by p1esk 2 hours ago

100×10^15 km

Comment by perarneng 1 hour ago

Imagine if a 3year old has only one single blood vessel: The single blood vessel grows by approximately 88 kilometers per day since conception.

Here is the quick calculation using that timeline:

•Total Days: ~1,365 days (270 days in the womb + 1,095 days of life up to age 3).

•Total Length: ~120,000 kilometers.

That breaks down to an astonishing 3.7 kilometers of growth every single hour.

Typical adult walking speed: ~5 km/h . Next time you are walking then imagine the tiny thin blood vessel growing behind you almost at the same speed you are walking. If you slow down and stop it will catch up to you.

Comment by contingencies 46 minutes ago

Interesting how deeply east coast Australia is colored. I live in Sydney, a city of 5.6 million humans, and yet my yard apparently has at least the following fungi I can identify to species level: Aseroe rubra (alien thing with tendrils), Astraeus hygrometricus, Cladia aggregata, Coprinellus disseminatus, Coprinellus micaceus, Cruentomycena viscidocruenta, Flavoparmelia caperata, Heterodea muelleri, Hypholoma fasciculare, Leratiomyces ceres, Mycena tenerrima, Myriostoma australianum, Omphalotus nidiformis (glows in the dark), Panellus luxfilamentus, Satyrus rubicundus (looks like a red penis), Scleroderma cepa, Scleroderma citrinum, Trametes coccinea, Trametes versicolor, Usnea hirta.

Comment by waterTanuki 1 hour ago

The map looks off. No way the American Southwest has 3 meters per cm cubed of fungal density in such an arid region. Plenty of desert.

Comment by WalterGR 2 hours ago

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