MERLIN SHELDRAKE'S "ENTANGLED LIFE" is just exciting & absolutely fantastic to read!!!
"Some researchers use the term ‘holobiont’ to refer to an assemblage of different organisms that behaves as a unit. The word ‘holobiont’ derives from the Greek word holos, which means whole. Holobionts are the lichens of this world, the more-than-the-sums of their parts. Like ‘symbiosis’ and ‘ecology’, ‘holobiont’ is a word that does useful work. If we only have words that describe neatly bounded autonomous individuals, it is easy to think that they actually exist. The holobiont is not a utopian concept. Collaboration is always a blend of competition and co-operation. There are many instances where the interests of all the symbionts don’t align. A bacterial species in our gut can make up a key part of our digestive system but cause a deadly infection if it gets into our blood. We’re used to this idea.
Perhaps it isn’t so hard for us to relate to lichens after all. This sort of relationship-building enacts one of the oldest evolutionary maxims. If the word ‘cyborg’ — short for cybernetic organism — describes the fusion between a living organism and a piece of technology, then we, like all other life forms, are symborgs, or symbiotic organisms. The authors of a seminal paper on the symbiotic view of life take a clear stance on this point. ‘There have never been individuals, they declare. “We are all lichens.’

#mycology #holobiont #symbiosis #merlinsheldrake #entangledlife #mustread #lichen #recommendation

can animals photosynthesise? musican moglii told me about the leaf slug. like the sea slug it gets energy by doing photosynthesia! i thought only plants can convert water, minerals and sunlight into glucose and oxygen.. to find out that also the spotted salamander and the pea aphid have symbiotic relationship with algae to do kleptoplasty (that is how scientist call the process of stealing the photosynthetic organelles (chloroplasts) from the algae) made me jealous. if i could choose a superpower this kleptoplasty would come straight after being invisible.

#symbiosis #chloroplast #convertlight #seaslug #leafslug #algae #evolution #life #superpower #lichen #moss #spottedsalamander #animalsthatusephotosythesis #complexity #imagine #nature #together #energysource #plantsforpresident

exhibition view UNDERWOOD show at NABU berlin + details of the paintings
#underwood #escapism #biodiversity #incircles #antropocene #yurt #weltflucht #howtodisappear #symbiosis #everyendisanewbeginning #forest #nest #plasticwaste #moss #lichen #cosy #nature #Anthropozän #pollution #abuseofpower#errorsystem #painting #moki #mioke