UKC

Just seen this on BBC4. An unasuming spore of a programme idea feeds on science, intellect and modern production values to shoot off ideas in all directions until your brain is totally captured. Must watch TV

In reply to Offwidth:

"modern production values"

I dont like the sound of that but i'll give it a go.

In reply to The Pylon King:



it had some 21st century music in it... a bit of sigur ros, that kind of thing

In reply to Dom Whillans:


oh dear..smart arse music.

In reply to Offwidth:

Yep, very interesting, but I'm now waiting for someone to tell me that mushrooms are more animal than vegetable so us veggies shouldn't eat them !

Not sure if it was covered in this program or another, but isn't there one fungi that infects and takes control of a beetle then causes it to climb to the top of a tree. By this point the beetle is a mere zombie, the fungi finally kills it, a shoot comes out of the back of its head to release it's spores over the forest. Nice.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

We think we are the top species on this planet but perhaps we are not. I suspect we are a crop waiting to mature before the top phylum chooses to eat us.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis

It isn't a fungus but...

Sacculina

In reply to duchessofmalfi:

i'll correct that for you

In reply to Chris the Tall:

You, my friend, have been watching too much QI.

And so have I...

In reply to Chris the Tall:



Saw that on QI as well, but there's an Attenborough clip showing same:

youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8&

Is it just me, or does evolution blow your mind away too?

Amazing that the worker ants who find 'infected' ants know to take the bodies away as well, and dump them as far away as possible to stop the spores infected the group.

Awesome