Page 161 - The Microworld Miracle

tures, they enter a kind of hibernation and wait for warmer temper-
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atures to come. Of the 55 species of fungus found in the human
body, almost 30 cause diseases. The others are harmless. 84
Fungi also take the form of moulds and yeasts, depending on
the functions they perform and their characteristics. Yeasts used in

the fermentation process, and the moulds used in the manufacture
of drugs and food, are actually nothing more than different species
of the fungi that can cause sickness and death in plants and ani-
mals. Fungi predominate over a large part of the Earth. Elaine
Ingham of Oregon State University has calculated that when all the
fungus mycelia in just one teaspoonful of forest soil are laid end to

end, they can stretch for 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers), and that they
will weigh 4,000 times more than all the bacteria in that same soil
specimen. The fungi in a teaspoonful of soil from humid forests at
sea level will stretch for 65, or even 650 kilometers (40 to 400
miles). 85 This high level of incidence of fungi on Earth is of the
greatest importance to maintaining life. Let us consider this subject

under another heading.

FUNGI ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE CONTINUATION

OF LIFE ON EARTH
Fungi have one essential feature: They break substances down,
reducing complex organic substances into simple organic com- HARUN YAHYA
pounds and inorganic molecules. They break up nutrients that oth-

er living things cannot ingest into simple compounds that they can.
In doing so, the obtain their own vital energy. Unlike other living
things, fungi do not digest food after eating it. They digest, or dis- (ADNAN OKTAR)
solve it first, and then eat it. They release a special enzyme to break

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