Book Club: Let's get tangled!

For December 2020, our book club is going to be reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52668915-entangled-life

ChiTownBio is dedicated to putting the knowledge, skills, and tools of biotechnology into the hands of all Chicagoans who want to explore the living world and use it to benefit our community. We want to encourage everyone to have access to add a little tinkering and learning about all biology into their lives.

Mushrooms. Mycelia. Mold. While plants and animals might capture most of our attention and collective imaginations when considering biology, our friends in the kingdom Fungi are ready for their time in the spotlight. Fungi can be used to craft sculptures, replace toxic materials, help solve the approaching plastic pollution crisis, provide further assistance in our war on pathogenic bacteria, encourage local biodiversity, and so much more.

To help us explore this possible future, we're chosen our next book club selection: "Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures" by Merlin Sheldrake. The book has been described thusly:

"When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.

"In Entangled Life, the biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view. Sheldrake's exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web," to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision."

Join us for what is bound to be a very lively discussion of the book in our continuing virtual series. We'll not only be sharing our opinions on not only mycology, but also about the use of fungi in microbiology, biotechnology, and many roles in our potential future.