Mushrooms “change the weather”, according to reports in the Telegraph (UK) and ScienceDaily 25 November 2013. Mushrooms are not plants in the normal sense since they are labelled fungi, and reproduce by spores, rather than seeds. It has always been assumed that they passively release spores, which are very small and lightweight, into the air, and rely on the wind to disperse them. However, a group of scientists led by Emilie Dressaire, of Trinity College, Hartford, has now found that mushroom spores can be dispersed quite long distances even when there is no wind.
Dressaire and colleagues used high speed photography and computer modelling to show that oyster and Shitake mushrooms release water vapour into the air, which cools the air around them, creating convection currents. These “miniature winds” are strong enough to blow the spores upwards, clear of the mushroom. Marcus Roper of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was involved in the study, commented: “Most people, even scientists, think of mushrooms simply as machines for producing spores. The more spores each machine produces, the more likely it to successfully colonize new habitats”. Emilie Dressaire added: “Our research shows that these ‘machines’ are much more complex than that: they control their local environments, and create winds where there were none in nature. That’s pretty amazing, but fungi are ingenious engineers.”
Editorial Comment:Claiming that mushrooms are “ingenious engineers” because they create air currents is about as smart as saying electric fans are ingenious engineers because they produce air currents. Here is a classic case of those who choose to give honour to the creation, rather than the Creator, and as a result have been turned over to foolishness. No-one believes fans made themselves to blow air, so why should they believe the mushrooms made themselves to create air currents? It is much more logical to believe the Creator, who made mushrooms to produce spores, also built in a method for dispersing them. It is not the illogical construction of plants and animals that causes people to doubt the existence of God as Creator at all, but rather a willing choice by the observing human to ignore the design that is clearly obvious. (Ref. fungi, design, reproduction)
Evidence News 24/13, 4 December 2013