Week 3

So I have been terrible about keeping my blog updated; I have just been so busy!!
(It doesn't help that I'm not into blogging either.)
OK so anyways, since the last time I wrote I have learned so much about fungi!! It is amazing.
The first thing you have to know about fungi is their role in nature. Fungi are detrivores or decomposers, they break down natural compounds. (mostly things that contain carbon like wood.) They are one of the few organisms that can break down lignen, a complex carbon compound, in a timely manner. Without fungi our world would be a wreak! There would be years upon years of fallen trees littering our forest's' floors and most antibiotics would not exist.
Unlike many people believe, fungi are not just another plant, they belong to their own kingdom and are not autotrophs. (They are heterotrophs, they get their energy from other organisms, not the sun like most plants do.)
Another interesting fact most people don't know about fungi is that mushrooms themselves are just the fruiting body of the fungus, not all fungi create mushrooms!! (But all mushrooms are fungi, have I lost you yet?) In any case, fungi are identified (in the field) by the mushroom they produce above ground, in a similar fashion fruit trees can be identified by their fruit. The difference however, is quite easy to see once you try and identify a mushroom you just harvested. For most mushrooms you must know every stinking detail about them, compare them to descriptions and pictures in a book, and make an educated guess. I'm guessing more than half the fungi kingdom can be described as a "small brownish mushroom with gills." Identifying mushrooms is about the hardest thing I have ever tried to do, I honestly think it is near impossible without consulting at least five books and a fungi specialist.
So I guess I should explain why I suddenly know all this cool stuff. It's because I am working for a company that uses fungi for soil remediation purposes. That means if you have property that has been heavily trafficked and, let's say, is contaminated with diesel oil, you can hire them to come in and use fungi to remove the diesel, pretty cool huh? So what am I doing you ask?
I am basically a lab rat, I get to help run tests using various contaminants to see what fungi breaks down what contaminate in the lab and then apply that to real life. The hard part is finding a mushroom that breaks down something like diesel fast in the lab, but can also live and do it well in real soil as well.
Right now we are working on some test plots in the woods, seeing what kind of mushrooms appear in a patch of hardwood versus a patch of coniferous forest. It is pretty exciting but very time consuming work.
I am working on it with my lab mates Janet and Joey; they are great! Janet has been working for this company for a while and knows all the lab work and experiments pretty well. Joey is new like me, but he knows much more about science in general than I do. In fact the first week we started working I was really intimidated by how much more Janet and Joey seemed to know then I know, but both of them have been in college and science classes a few more years than I have. I realize now they are both very nice and very helpful and I am very excited I get to work with them this year.
Well I should really get to studying my biology notes, I have a test tomorrow!
Until Next week! -C