We all know the Earth is in trouble.

我們都知道地球面臨危機。

We have now entered in the 6X,

我們已進入這星球上

the sixth major extinction on this planet.

第六次大規模的物種滅絕。

I often wondered, if there was a United Organization of Organisms --

我經常在想如果有一個聯合物種組織，

otherwise known as "Uh-Oh" --

別名為「啊哦－」

(Laughter) -- and every organism had a right to vote,

（笑聲）－並且每個物種都有權利投票，

would we be voted on the planet, or off the planet?

我們會被票選逐出地球還是保留下來？

I think that vote is occurring right now.

我想這個票選正在進行。

I want to present to you a suite of six mycological solutions,

我想告訴大家一系列六種真菌法。

using fungi, and these solutions are based on mycelium.

這些方法以菌絲為基礎，提供利用真菌的方式。

The mycelium infuses all landscapes,

菌絲體存在於任何地形種。

it holds soils together, it's extremely tenacious.

它異常堅韌，能夠牢固土壤。

This holds up to 30,000 times its mass.

可以固定超過自身三萬倍重量的土壤。

They're the grand molecular disassemblers of nature -- the soil magicians.

它們是大自然中的巨型分子分解機--土壤魔術師。

They generate the humus soils across the landmasses of Earth.

它們生產腐質，覆蓋地球表面。

We have now discovered that there is a multi-directional transfer

我們目前發現植物間養分

of nutrients between plants, mitigated by the mcyelium --

可透過菌絲體多方向傳遞。

so the mycelium is the mother

菌絲體就好像是

that is giving nutrients from alder and birch trees

不斷提供赤楊、白樺樹、鐵杉、檜木、

to hemlocks, cedars and Douglas firs.

黃杉養份的母親。

Dusty and I, we like to say, on Sunday, this is where we go to church.

妲斯蔕和我喜歡說這是我們星期天上教堂的地方。

I'm in love with the old-growth forest,

我愛這古老的叢林，

and I'm a patriotic American because we have those.

而且因為我們有這些叢林，我是愛國的美國人。

Most of you are familiar with Portobello mushrooms.

你們大多知道蘑菇。

And frankly, I face a big obstacle.

坦白說，我常面臨一個問題，

When I mention mushrooms to somebody,

就是當我向人們提起菇類，

they immediately think Portobellos or magic mushrooms,

他們立即想到的是蘑菇或是迷幻蘑菇。

their eyes glaze over, and they think I'm a little crazy.

他們對我翻白眼，認為我瘋了。

So, I hope to pierce that prejudice forever with this group.

所以我希望在座的人永遠不要有這樣的偏見。

We call it mycophobia,

我們稱之為菇類恐懼症：

the irrational fear of the unknown, when it comes to fungi.

當談到菌類時產生的非理性恐懼。

Mushrooms are very fast in their growth.

菇類生長的速度是非常快的。

Day 21, day 23, day 25.

第21天、第23天、第25天。

Mushrooms produce strong antibiotics.

菇類會生產非常強的抗生素。

In fact, we're more closely related to fungi than we are to any other kingdom.

實際上，與其他生物王國相比我們與真菌類更接近些。

A group of 20 eukaryotic microbiologists

大約20位真核微生物學家

published a paper two years ago erecting opisthokonta --

在兩年前發表了一篇論文建立「後鞭毛生物」--

a super-kingdom that joins animalia and fungi together.

一個聯繫起動物與真菌的超大族群。

We share in common the same pathogens.

我們有共同的病原體。

Fungi don't like to rot from bacteria,

真菌不喜歡被細菌侵蝕，

and so our best antibiotics come from fungi.

所以我們最有效的抗生素來自真菌。

But here is a mushroom that's past its prime.

但這是個過了黃金時期的菇。

After they sporulate, they do rot.

他們形成孢子後會死亡。

But I propose to you that the sequence of microbes

但我要提出，菇類死亡後，

that occur on rotting mushrooms

接下來在菇上生存的微生物

are essential for the health of the forest.

對健康和叢林有絕對的重要性。

They give rise to the trees,

它們使樹木成長，

they create the debris fields that feed the mycelium.

它們創造餵養菌絲體的腐質。

And so we see a mushroom here sporulating.

我們看這裡一株菇正在形成孢子。

And the spores are germinating,

孢子正在發芽，

and the mycelium forms and goes underground.

然後菌絲體就形成並且深入地下。

In a single cubic inch of soil, there can be more than eight miles of these cells.

在一立方英吋的土壤中，可能含有超過8英里長的細胞。

My foot is covering approximately 300 miles of mycelium.

我的腳掌現在正踩著大約300英里的菌絲體。

This is photomicrographs from Nick Read and Patrick Hickey.

這是一張尼克瑞得和帕特里克希基所拍攝的顯微照片。

And notice that as the mycelium grows,

注意當菌絲成長時，

it conquers territory and then it begins the net.

它擴張領地並建立網路。

I've been a scanning electron microscopist for many years,

我用掃描式電子顯微鏡很多年了，

I have thousands of electron micrographs,

我有數千張的電子顯微照片。

and when I'm staring at the mycelium,

當我注視着菌絲體的圖像時，

I realize that they are microfiltration membranes.

我意識到它們是微孔過濾薄膜。

We exhale carbon dioxide, so does mycelium.

我們呼出二氧化碳，菌絲體也是。

It inhales oxygen, just like we do.

它們也像我們一樣吸入氧氣。

But these are essentially externalized stomachs and lungs.

但這些是外置的胃和肺。

And I present to you a concept that these are extended neurological membranes.

我想帶給大家的一個概念是他們還是神經薄膜。

And in these cavities, these micro-cavities form,

在這些洞中，更微小的洞會形成。

and as they fuse soils, they absorb water.

當他們深入土壤，他們會吸收水分。

These are little wells.

他們就想小井一般。

And inside these wells, then microbial communities begin to form.

在這些小井中，菌絲族群開始形成。

And so the spongy soil not only resists erosion,

所以海綿般的土壤不只防止腐化，

but sets up a microbial universe

也建立一個可以讓許多其他生物生長的

that gives rise to a plurality of other organisms.

菌絲世界。

I first proposed, in the early 1990s,

我最早在90年代提出，

that mycelium is Earth's natural Internet.

菌絲體是地球的天然互聯網。

When you look at the mycelium, they're highly branched.

仔細觀察菌絲體你會發現他們有非常多的分支。

And if there's one branch that is broken, then very quickly,

如果有一個分支損壞了，很快地，

because of the nodes of crossing --

因為這些節點互相交叉--

Internet engineers maybe call them hot points --

網絡工程師可能稱之為連線熱點--

there are alternative pathways for channeling nutrients and information.

提供其它可以連通養分輸送以及信息傳遞的通路。

The mycelium is sentient.

菌絲體是有感知的。

It knows that you are there.

它可以感受到你的存在。

When you walk across landscapes,

當你在路地上行走，

it leaps up in the aftermath of your footsteps trying to grab debris.

它緊跟著你的腳步躍上來抓取土塵。

So, I believe the invention of the computer Internet

所以我相信電腦網路的發明是

is an inevitable consequence

由於生物已創造出非常成功的系統後

of a previously proven, biologically successful model.

不可避免的成果。

The Earth invented the computer Internet for its own benefit,

地球為了自己的益處而創造了它的網路，

and we now, being the top organism on this planet,

現在我們作為這星球上位於頂端的生物，

are trying to allocate resources in order to protect the biosphere.

正嘗試著分配資源來保護生態圈。

Going way out, dark matter conforms to the same mycelial archetype.

擴大範圍來看，暗物質也與菌絲體的形態類似。

I believe matter begets life;

我相信生命由物質產生，

life becomes single cells; single cells become strings;

生命從單個細胞開始，單細胞串接起來

strings become chains; chains network.

形成鏈接，繼而形成網絡。

And this is the paradigm that we see throughout the universe.

我們觀察宇宙也發現相同的模式。

Most of you may not know that fungi were the first organisms to come to land.

在座的大多數人可能不一定知道真菌是第一種登上陸地的生物。

They came to land 1.3 billion years ago,

他們在13億年前來到陸地上，

and plants followed several hundred million years later.

植物在好幾百萬年以後才開始在陸地上生長。

How is that possible?

這怎麼可能呢？

It's possible because the mycelium produces oxalic acids,

因為菌絲體製造草酸

and many other acids and enzymes,

和其他酸性物質和酶。

pockmarking rock and grabbing calcium and other minerals

使他們能夠侵蝕石塊並獲取鈣質和其他礦物

and forming calcium oxalates.

來形成草酸鈣。

Makes the rocks crumble, and the first step in the generation of soil.

不斷將岩石分解稱小的細屑，這就是產生土壤的第一步。

Oxalic acid is two carbon dioxide molecules joined together.

草酸是由兩個二氧化碳分子結合起來。

So, fungi and mycelium

所以真菌和菌絲體

sequester carbon dioxide in the form of calcium oxalates.

以碳酸鈣的形式保存二氧化碳。

And all sorts of other oxalates

其他類型的草酸

are also sequestering carbon dioxide through the minerals

也都是石塊中二氧化碳

that are being formed and taken out of the rock matrix.

和其他礦物質的保存。

This was first discovered in 1859.

這個現象是在1859年首次發現的。

This is a photograph by Franz Hueber.

這是一張弗郎茲休伯在1950年代

This photograph's taken 1950s in Saudi Arabia.

於沙特阿拉伯所拍攝的照片。

420 million years ago, this organism existed.

420萬年前，這種生物就存在了。

It was called Prototaxites.

它叫做原杉藻屬。

Prototaxites, laying down, was about three feet tall.

原杉藻屬全長約有一米。

The tallest plants on Earth at that time were less than two feet.

當時地球上最高的植物不超過0.6米。

Dr. Boyce, at the University of Chicago,

芝加哥大學的伯易斯博士去年在

published an article in the Journal of Geology

Journal of Geology（地質學期刊）上發表了一篇文章

this past year determining that Prototaxites was a giant fungus,

確認原杉藻屬是一種巨大的真菌，

a giant mushroom.

一個巨大的蘑菇。

Across the landscapes of Earth were dotted these giant mushrooms.

這些巨型蘑菇曾遍佈地球表面，

All across most land masses.

存在於幾乎所有地面，

And these existed for tens of millions of years.

且存在了千萬年之久。

Now, we've had several extinction events, and as we march forward --

現在我們正經歷一些物種滅絕的情況 。

65 million years ago -- most of you know about it --

你們大多知道六千五百萬年前，

we had an asteroid impact.

地球上曾經有過一次隕石撞擊。

The Earth was struck by an asteroid,

隕石擊中地球，

a huge amount of debris was jettisoned into the atmosphere.

大量的塵埃被拋到了大氣圈中，

Sunlight was cut off, and fungi inherited the Earth.

陽光被阻斷了，真菌延續了地球上的生命。

Those organisms that paired with fungi were rewarded,

那些依賴真菌的生物得到了好處，

because fungi do not need light.

因為真菌不需要光。

More recently, at Einstein University,

最近在愛因斯坦大學，

they just determined that fungi use radiation as a source of energy,

學者們確認真菌會使用輻射作為能源，

much like plants use light.

就好像植物利用陽光一樣。

So, the prospect of fungi existing on other planets elsewhere,

所以關於真菌生存在其他行星上的可能性，

I think, is a forgone conclusion,

我覺得早有一個已知的結論，

at least in my own mind.

至少我是這麼認為的。

The largest organism in the world is in Eastern Oregon.

世界上最大的生物在於俄勒岡州的東部。

I couldn't miss it. It was 2,200 acres in size:

我不可能沒發現它，因為它有2200英畝大。

2,200 acres in size, 2,000 years old.

2200英畝那麼大，2000多年的歲月。

The largest organism on the planet is a mycelial mat, one cell wall thick.

地球上最大的生物是一張菌絲體「地毯」，一個細胞壁的厚度。

How is it that this organism can be so large,

這個生物怎麼可能會這麼大

and yet be one cell wall thick,

卻只有一個細胞壁厚？

whereas we have five or six skin layers that protect us?

而我們卻有厚五、六層的細胞保護着我們。

The mycelium, in the right conditions, produces a mushroom --

菌絲體在合適的條件下會產生蘑菇，

it bursts through with such ferocity that it can break asphalt.

且以能夠穿破柏油路的力量生長出來。

We were involved with several experiments.

我們之前參與一些實驗，

I'm going to show you six, if I can,

如果時間夠，我要給你們看六個

solutions for helping to save the world.

可以幫助拯救世界的方法。

Battelle Laboratories and I joined up in Bellingham, Washington.

我在華盛頓的柏林翰和巴特爾實驗室合作。

There were four piles saturated with diesel and other petroleum waste:

在那有四堆柴油和石油廢料：

one was a control pile; one pile was treated with enzymes;

一堆是對照組、一堆是加了催化酶的、

one pile was treated with bacteria;

一堆加了細菌、

and our pile we inoculated with mushroom mycelium.

一堆加了蘑菇菌絲。

The mycelium absorbs the oil.

菌絲體吸收了石油。

The mycelium is producing enzymes --

菌絲體會產生催化酶--

peroxidases -- that break carbon-hydrogen bonds.

能破壞碳氫鍵的過氧化酶。

These are the same bonds that hold hydrocarbons together.

這些鍵與碳水化合物的鍵結相同。

So, the mycelium becomes saturated with the oil,

所以菌絲體被浸在石油中。

and then, when we returned six weeks later,

我們在六周後回來，

all the tarps were removed,

移除油布後，

all the other piles were dead, dark and stinky.

發現其它堆都腐爛、發黑、發臭。

We came back to our pile, it was covered

只有這堆被

with hundreds of pounds of oyster mushrooms,

幾百磅蚝蘑覆蓋

and the color changed to a light form.

且顏色變淺。

The enzymes remanufactured the hydrocarbons

催化酶將碳氫鏈重組

into carbohydrates -- fungal sugars.

轉變成真菌可用的糖分。

Some of these mushrooms are very happy mushrooms.

有些蘑菇長得很好，

They're very large.

長的非常大。

They're showing how much nutrition that they could've obtained.

他們表現出可以獲得多少養分。

But something else happened, which was an epiphany in my life.

但另外一件事也發生了，一件讓我頓悟的事。

They sporulated, the spores attract insects,

他們產生孢子，孢子吸引昆蟲，

the insects laid eggs, eggs became larvae.

昆蟲產下卵，卵成為幼蟲。

Birds then came, bringing in seeds,

這樣就吸引了鳥兒前來，也帶來了種子，

and our pile became an oasis of life.

這讓我們廢物堆成為了一塊生命綠洲。

Whereas the other three piles were dead, dark and stinky,

但其他堆則是又黑又臭的死物質，

and the PAH's -- the aromatic hydrocarbons --

且他們的PAH（具有香味的碳氫化合物）含量

went from 10,000 parts per million to less than 200 in eight weeks.

在八個禮拜中從百萬分之一萬減少到小於兩百。

The last image we don't have.

最後我們沒有圖像的是

The entire pile was a green berm of life.

整堆成為一個生命綠地。

These are gateway species,

這些是向其他生物族群

vanguard species that open the door for other biological communities.

打開生命大門的物種。

So I invented burlap sacks, bunker spawn --

所以我發明了一種粗麻袋，利用基地復活的概念

and putting the mycelium -- using storm blown debris,

使用風沙將菌絲置入。

you can take these burlap sacks and put them downstream

你可以把這些麻袋放到一個

from a farm that's producing E. coli, or other wastes,

製造大腸桿菌或者其他廢料的農場的下游，

or a factory with chemical toxins,

或是製造化學毒物的工廠下游，

and it leads to habitat restoration.

讓它幫助棲息地再生。

So, we set up a site in Mason County, Washington,

我們在華盛頓的曼森郡設立起一個站點，

and we've seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of coliforms.

並觀察到那裡的大腸菌在數量上出現了驚人的下降。

And I'll show you a graph here.

我給你們看一張圖表。

This is a logarithmic scale, 10 to the eighth power.

這是一個指數規模，是10的8次方。

There's more than a 100 million colonies per gram,

大約每一克裡面就有一億個菌落。

and 10 to the third power is around 1,000.

十的三次方是一千。

In 48 hours to 72 hours, these three mushroom species

48到72小時後，這三種蘑菇

reduced the amount of coliform bacteria 10,000 times.

大約減少了一萬倍的大腸菌。

Think of the implications.

想像一下這代表著什麼。

This is a space-conservative method that uses storm debris --

這是一種非常節省空間的風沙方法，

and we can guarantee that we will have storms every year.

而且我們很確定每年都會有風砂。

So, this one mushroom, in particular, has drawn our interest over time.

所以這一種蘑菇在這段時間中特別吸引我們的注意力。

This is my wife Dusty,

這是我的妻子妲斯蒂

with a mushroom called Fomitopsis officinalis -- Agarikon.

和一種稱為擬層孔菌屬芦荀蘑菇。

It's a mushroom exclusive to the old-growth forest

戴奧斯克敵斯（希臘生物學家）在西元前65年發現這種

that Dioscorides first described in 65 A.D.

只有在年老叢林中生長的蘑菇

as a treatment against consumption.

用來治療肺癆病。

This mushroom grows in Washington State, Oregon,

這種蘑菇生長在華盛頓、奧瑞岡、

northern California, British Columbia, now thought to be extinct in Europe.

北卡羅來納州，不列顛哥倫比亞省。在歐洲被認為已經絕種了。

May not seem that large --

這樣看可能不是很大，

let's get closer.

讓我們靠近一點。

This is extremely rare fungus.

這是一種非常稀少的真菌。

Our team -- and we have a team of experts that go out --

我們的團隊－我們有一個由專家組成的隊伍--

we went out 20 times in the old-growth forest last year.

我們去年去了二十次古老叢林。

We found one sample to be able to get into culture.

找到了一個可以栽培的樣本。

Preserving the genome of these fungi in the old-growth forest

我認為保存這些古老叢林裡的真菌的基因組

I think is absolutely critical for human health.

對人類健康是至關重要的。

I've been involved with the U.S. Defense Department BioShield program.

我參與美國國防部的生物護罩計畫。

We submitted over 300 samples of mushrooms that were boiled in hot water,

我們送出三百個經過沸水煮泡的蘑菇樣本，

and mycelium harvesting these extracellular metabolites.

和收成胞外代謝物的菌絲體。

And a few years ago,

幾年前

we received these results.

我們收到了結果。

We have three different strains of Agarikon mushrooms

我們有三株擬層孔菌屬菇類

that were highly active against poxviruses.

可以有效對抗水痘病毒。

Dr. Earl Kern, who's a smallpox expert

伊爾科恩博士是一名美國國防部門天花病毒方面的專家。

of the U.S. Defense Department, states that any compounds

他說任何擁有兩種或者更多的選擇性指數的化合物

that have a selectivity index of two or more are active.

稱為「有效」。

10 or greater are considered to be very active.

而擁有十種或更多的則稱為「非常有效」。

Our mushroom strains were in the highly active range.

我們的蘑菇品種是屬於「非常有效」。

There's a vetted press release that you can read --

有一本經過國防部門審查的出版物

it's vetted by DOD --

你們可以看看。

if you Google "Stamets" and "smallpox."

如果你用Google搜索「Stamets」和「天花」，

Or you can go to NPR.org and listen to a live interview.

或者到NPR.org網站上聽取現場的訪問。