Scientists in the UK chose an interesting subject to dive into; the ability of mushrooms to talk to each other.
The Royal Society Open Science journal actually contained a published report from researchers who claim that not only that mushrooms do chat it up, they possess an impressive vocabulary.
Here’s a quote from Andrew Adamatzsky, one of the brainiacs who worked on the report.
“[We] found that the ‘fungal language’ exceeds the European languages in morphological complexity.”
Here’s how the scientists figured this out. Adamtzky analyzed the data from electrical impulses from these mushroom species; caterpillar fungus split gill, ghost, and enoki.
According to a story in the NY Post, he then inserted electrodes into the dirt where the mushroom’s hyphae set up a clone – and he tracked the data. His results allowed him to determine that the electrical spikes occurred in clusters most of the time, mirroring human vocabularies. The mushrooms allegedly have a 50-word vocabulary.
The mushroom experts conclude that they talk to make their presence felt among other cluster members.
Could this mushroom scientist be indulging in his study material? Possibly, if you believe what University of Exeter mycologist Dan Webber said in the Post story.
“Though interesting, the interpretation as language seems somewhat overenthusiastic and would require far more research and testing of critical hypotheses before we see ‘Fungus’ on Google Translate.”
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