Perfect Mushroom Shape

[jonbem]

Nice article on the BBC BBC - Earth News - Secret of mushroom shape revealed

[solus]

I think Mother Nature's done rather well all by herself without some smart scientist trying to "improve" on her efforts!

Don't scroll up and down past those diagrams too fast - it'll make your eyes go all funny!

[Kazzy D]

If those diagrams are the shape of things to come, then it will be more than just my eyes that will be going funny! I dont know about anyone else, but since genetic modification, I have gone right off my fruit and veg. It just doesn't taste the same anymore and I dont enjoy eating too much of it. Struggle now to eat even a couple of my 5 a day. I am slowly turning into a fat cake' oholic! Please, smart scientists, please dont meddle with the mushrooms!....

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by Kazzy D

I dont know about anyone else, but since genetic modification, I have gone right off my fruit and veg. It just doesn't taste the same anymore and I dont enjoy eating too much of it.

I don't think any GM fruit and veg is actually sold in the UK. There was a short period when a GM tomato puree was available and that was withdrawn pretty rapidly. Perhaps there are other reasons why things don't taste the same but it is not because of genetic modification.

[fairplay]

And I doubt very much if, in a blind test, Kazzy or anybody else, would be able to taste the difference between an ordinary farmed carrot, an organic carrot or a GM carrot.

Stick to your Carrot cake Kazzy, you'll be alright.

Neil.

[jonbem]

So after posting this I got to thinking that a "boffin" view may not conform to our view.
So have a glass of wine, some caffeine or any drug of your preference, or a fugus that may induce certain effects.
Wouldn't it be boring if we let the scientist decide it all!
Then just go out and enjoy the glory of the natural world.

[fairplay]

Are not people going 'off the rails' over the research highlighted in the opening post ?
No scientist is suggesting we should be meddling with nature, all that has been done here is a simple study into matching our wits against nature and in this case science has 'shown' that nature has not yet evolved to produce the 'perfect' (or most efficient) spore dispersal system.

All they have done is come up with a more 'efficient' design. Each fungal fruiting body already produces millions of spores, the vast majority never surviving to produce further fruiting bodies, so the last thing on any scientists mind is to produce more excess spores.

Neil.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by fairplay

Are not people going 'off the rails' over the research highlighted in the opening post ?
No scientist is suggesting we should be meddling with nature, all that has been done here is a simple study into matching our wits against nature and in this case science has 'shown' that nature has not yet evolved to produce the 'perfect' (or most efficient) spore dispersal system.

All they have done is come up with a more 'efficient' design. Each fungal fruiting body already produces millions of spores, the vast majority never surviving to produce further fruiting bodies, so the last thing on any scientists mind is to produce more excess spores.

Neil.

Anyway more spores per fruit body is not necessarily more efficient. Strikes me it is just another scientist scrabbling around to find a bit of research to justify their existence. And probably not the most efficient use of their time, particularly if maximum reproduction is considered the measure of efficiency ... perhaps they should have been trying to make babies instead ...

Forever the cynic
Melanie

[fairplay]

Ooooo ! I think that's too dismissive Melanie, it's research like this that goes on to create or improve things in other disciplines, such as space travel where as much as possible needs to crammed into as small as possible.

Neil.

[loripo]

I take the point about packing and space, but a 'mushroom' needs to grow outwards from a centre point presumably, and the radiating folds seem to lend themselves better for this than the two proposed designs. Maybe Nature balances the energy used to grow to the optimum size for reproduction and the number of spores necessary to let life continue.