Paul Stamets : 6 ways mushrooms can save the world

http://www.ted.com

Mycologist Paul Stamets studies the mycelium -- and lists 6 ways that this astonishing fungus can help save the world.

Human Powered Machines - Can Pedals Power the World?

Peak Moment 221: Jump on that bike and power up the blender for your morning smoothie! Matthew Corson-Finnerty shows several machines he has developed while at Aprovecho Center in Oregon. Watch us pedal power an electricity generator, a grain mill, a blender, and a straw-chopper. Matthew notes thereapos;s "considerable difference between the power that one person can generate, and [whatapos;s] generated by a fossil fuel engine or a coal-fired plant to provide electricity." After watching these machines, what do you think? [aprovecho.net, bikeblender.blogspot.com]

Peak Moment TV exists because of viewers like you. Donate at http://www.peakmoment.tv, right side.

Jardinage naturel : un potager bio avec Josiane Goepfert

Jardinage biologique, écologique ou naturel ? Comment entretenir votre jardin sans pesticides ? Quelques minutes avec Josiane Goepfert dans son potager d'une curieuse dans le Doubs pour en apprendre d'avantage.

Let's Talk About Soil - English - subtitled

This animated film tells the reality of soil resources around the world, covering the issues of degradation, urbanization, land grabbing and overexploitation; the film offers options to make the way we manage our soils more sustainable.

The film is also available in German, Spanish, French and Arabic : here

For more information visit : globalsoilweek.org

Credits:
Director: Uli Henrik Streckenbach (uhsless.de)
Design: Uli Henrik Streckenbach, Ronny Schmidt (roschroom.com)
Modelling: Ronny Schmidt, Uli Henrik Streckenbach
Character Rigging: Maik Lochmann
Animation: Uli Henrik Streckenbach, Ronny Schmidt
Scarecrow Artist: Andrea Abendroth
Concept: Uli Henrik Streckenbach

Music and Sound Design: Marcus Illgenstein (illgenstein.de)
English Voice: Robin Merrill
Foley Artist: Martin Langenbach, Metrix Media
Foley Recording Engineer: Christoph Wieczorek, Metrix Media

Foleys recorded at Metrix Media.
Voice-over recorded at VSI Verlin.

Beneficial Fungi

In this segment, Dr. Gail Wilson, Associate Professor of Natural Resource ecology and management, joins Oklahoma Gardening host Kim Toscano for a close look at fungal life beneath the soil surface.

Plant interaction with friendly bacteria gives pathogens their break

Professor Giles Oldroyd of the John Innes Centre explains how plant roots form beneficial interactions with microbes in the soil. Almost all plants associate with mycorrhizal fungi to help in the uptake of nutrients such as phosphate. Some plants, particularly legumes, also associate with bacteria that 'fix' atmospheric nitrogen into a form the plant can use as fertiliser.
In two papers published in Current Biology, the researchers describe how these two interactions are mediated within the plant by a common signalling pathway, and have identified a specific mycorrhizal transcription factor. They also show how the signalling pathway has been recruited by pathogenic microbes, presenting a challenge to the plant to make sure it only forms beneficial interactions

http://news.jic.ac.uk/2012/11/current-biuology-microbial-interactions/

Do trees communicate?

Root networks, trees, forest, mycorrhizae,