The work of Pembroke’s Academic Director, Dr Mark Fricker, has been used in the making of the documentary film ‘Super Fungi: Can mushrooms help save the world?’
Dr Fircker’s research informs us that, “The whole organism is one single giant cell, albeit containing many nuclei, that can grow to be many centimetres in size.” James Rhodes, a first year student at New College, was astounded by this, saying, “These moulds seem more developed than I am – I wish I could grow a couple more centimetres whenever I wanted.”
Dr Fricker went on to say, “Although it has no brain or nervous system, its exploratory behaviour and the network itself is highly responsive and continuously adapts to whatever is happening around it.”
This results in these moulds’ extraordinary ability to solve certain abstract problems, such as the shortest path through a maze, and raises their possible use in communication. One third year student took well to this, “I want to communicate via mushroom – no one uses the inter-college landlines anyway.”
The film ‘Super Fungi’, partially based upon Fricker’s work, has already received much critical acclaim, winning two awards at the 2013 Pariscience International Film Festival. The documentary is about the possibilities that fungi open up for development, and to overcoming challenges which so far have not been solved by the synthetic creations of humans.
In the film’s description, examples of a variety of different fungi and their uses are given, from Laccaria Bicolor – which allows trees to grow in deserts – to Fomitopsis officinalis, which can be a last chance drug for sufferers of incurable diseases. Indeed, they are promising so many applications that American mycologist Paul Stamets asserts, “Mushrooms will help save the world”.
The short trailer to the documentary reveals little-known facts about fungi, explaining, “The fungi kingdom is one of the largest in nature … comprised of giants larger than a white whale, to Lilliputians the size of a speck of dust.”
Arieh Frosh, a second year fine art student, was somewhat confused by this news, saying, “I can’t believe there are mushrooms bigger than white whales, I struggle to eat the little ones. Who’s hiding these massive mushrooms?”
