Fungi are one of the most diverse organisms on Earth and contribute to many aspects of life as we know it. They’re the most populous kingdom on the planet – an estimated 3.8million fungi exist worldwide – and yet, more than 90% of them are currently unknown to science.
A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs, they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved organic molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. The video below from “Domain of Science” goes through a lot in short time.
The main tech companies are sinking tens of billions of dollars on the success of generative AI. But what if it isn’t the next big thing? What if it’s failing in almost every way? AI companies burn obscene amounts of money with little return. How long can that last for? AIs dispense useless and sometimes dangerous advice. A recent study showed that tech companies have run out of new training data to improve their AI models. If AI is really so costly, unreliable, and limited, what happens to the industry that has bet so big on it? And what happens to the economies depending on the stock prices of that industry (and your pension)?
I rode the Pictish trail route (not the band) at the end of last summer. Before hitting the start of the actual route, I spent a couple of days exploring Orkney.
