Fungi: Death Becomes Them - CrashCourse Biology #39

Death is what fungi are all about. By feasting on the deceased remains of almost all organisms on the planet, converting the organic matter back into soil from which new life will spring, they perform perhaps the most vital function in the global food web. Fungi, which thrive on death, make all life possible.
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Table of Contents
1) Biolography 02:07
2) Structure 04:53
3) The Decomposers 06:10
4) The Mutualists 06:38
5) The Predators 07:23
6) The Parasites 07:35
7) Reproduction 08:24
References for this episode can be found in the Google document here: dft.ba/-2i0c
crashcourse, biology, hank green, fungi, fungus, detritivore, species, taxonomy, yeast, disease, death, organic matter, louis pasteur, biolography, beer, anaerobic respiration, fermentation, pasteurization, decompose, decomposition, soil, nutrient, recycle, mushroom, heterotroph, hyphae, chitin, mycelium, decomposer, mutualist, predator, parasite, enzyme, lignin, haustoria, mycorrhizae, sex, reproduction, spore, propagation, plasmogamy, asci, disperse, ascocarps, molds Support CrashCourse on Subbable: subbable.com/crashcourse

[@AaronLockman]

Unlike with my real teachers, I can just rewind Hank to the point where my attention started wandering.

[@elizabethleighton9195]

Pardon this geek-out. I've studied this subject and I love it. To add to the category of mutualists: endophytes. Fungal endophytes live in plant tissue walls where they can be beneficial or antagonistic. Sometimes one species of endophyte will be beneficial in one plant species but antagonistic in a different plant species. They produce secondary metabolites that can serve all kinds of strange purposes in a plant. They are also believed to be nearly universally present in plant species.

[@Adrian_1751]

Fungus is amazing. I’m growing some in my drawer.

[@saphirarose5866]

Stop reading the comments and keep studying! :D You got this!

[@MooMooMath]

The more I learn about fungi the more impressed I'm with this group of organisms. Thanks for the helpful video. Great research as always.

[@willowcullentorrey9486]

Would you consider doing a crash course mycology series? Fungi really deserve their own series not just one video don't you think?

[@lyzax2185]

Wow hank you’re such a... fun-gi

[@mrbateman360]

OH MY GLOB

[@varkin2742]

hah hah hah good joke

[@leo-hao]

Thankyou, radioactive Fun... dge

[@maddieecakee]

hahahahahaha i laughed too hard at this

[@sharkish0]

*rim shot*

[@o_o-037]

I don't like mushrooms, coz I'm not a ... fun-guy I'll leave now.

[@sbinnala5769]

I've put this video on 1.25x speed and Hank speaks at the same rate as he does in later videos...

[@hotaruishere2133]

Wow, that is absolutely true. This bothers me so much xD my mind has been blown! It almost sounds completely natural!!!

[@Kiki-Buttons]

🤯 Thanks

[@kat_the_mouse]

"we should talk briefly about fungus sex." Previous Unsaid Sentences

[@natsutan8552]

IVE BEEN WATCHING THESE VIDS ON 2X SPEED WITH SUBTITLES FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF AHJASHJSAHAJSHSAJSAH I HAVE A TEST IN EIGHT HOURS

[@anniez6817]

Raeka Tan How did you go?

[@leo-hao]

Chil... no need to yell...

[@davidsan9654]

you failed

[@Emix1021]

**cough** **cough** ARMYYYYYYYYY! **cough** **cough**

[@neel7468]

Now I know how people waste time.

[@hunterklie]

This is one of my favorite biology crash course episodes. Fungi. Excellent.

[@maathaindobe]

Your happy vibe is mindblowingly addictive. I love your videos❣

[@c7dermatome]

The ant head invading fungi.... so good, this makes the chest erupting things from the Alien movies seem quite tame, by comparison. Great Video, what a fantastic channel this is.

[@elise5021]

Thanks again Crash Course. Love your work. I have seen so many of your videos! Very helpful for getting started on a topic and for getting into the geek mood. x

[@sunriselg]

My biology teacher liked to say "If someone asks you a question about biology the answer is probably one of those four words: "enzymes", "proteins", "surface maximization" or "key-lock principle"."

[@mrslovvet]

the whole "key-lock" principle of enzymes turned out to be wrong, didn't it? The enzyme wraps around the substrate, so the analogy doesn't really work anymore.

[@catherinejackson9924]

This review was very helpful. I am reviewing for my MT exam in Microbiology and did not work in the mycology section of the lab, so I need all the help I can get! My kids may even watch this, hopefully!

[@ryanacosta4387]

who tryna cram before midterms??

[@tororojoh8439]

Ryan Acosta me rn

[@RaceySpacey]

me haha

[@oscarwong4201]

Me

[@bowietwombly5951]

Crash course+1.5x speed=the day before every science test

[@johnnyboy3390]

No u

[@ihh2921]

I've found one of my favorite youtube channels right here, incredibly well put, easy to understand and kinda fun

[@patriciaescobedo8020]

I love this. He makes biology fun. He is funny and I actually learned a lot from Crash Course videos more so than others.

[@teddysammy12]

I'm a visual learner, and sometimes I think it would be nice to have diagrams in your videos.

[@premdesai8767]

best tutor ever seen keep it up....

[@adaxasd]

Yeah, Hank's a fun guy

[@richardatchison9913]

I really do appreciate all the information that all of you put out on KZbin I've been watching your channel now for awhile the multiple channels all of you have and all I want to say is keep up the good work you're very informal they helping my son with his work and I recommend this channel many of y'all's other channels to people searching to find more information

[@velbythorngage]

When I knew we were getting into the study of fungus, I was a little skeptical about the capability of making this interesting, but Hank is just made of entertainement

[@skittles1800]

The ants can actually tell when a single ant has the fungi in its head and one of the worker ants will carry it far away from the colony so more ants don't get infected. It's amazing really.

[@sonyaschwarz6830]

Did anyone notice that the book he's reading is blank?

[@lone2234]

This is one year ago but I think that was the page that connects to the cover or the page before the inside title so it was blank

[@leo-hao]

No it was literally some random book that they picked and the book was literally the same one! They just changed the coverings!!!

[@DanielaMoreno-xn9ve]

@@leo-hao There are some books with that sort of covering, i dont think they did a change

[@rachelstoner1743]

Thank you so much! I’m in a program at Penn Foster and have to study everything on my own. I don’t know what I would do without them!

[@kristina5108]

I remember watching your videos when I was going to a municipal competition. I got 3rd place on that and I continued to a regional competition which I got 1st place on. Now I'm going to a state level competition this Sunday. I honestly don't know what else to say expect thank you❤️❤️❤️

[@alyssacleland]

I definitely thought I was going to fail my exam in a few hours -- then I found this series. THANK YOU.

[@FB-mw5gv]

I'm waiting for the "The Zombie Ant Fungus" movie. Someone make it please yeah!?🙋🏽

[@hrabesancho1892]

It exists, but its a video game called Last of Us. These fungus zombies with erupted heads are much more scary than regular zombs.

[@cityuser]

Yeah how about we don't make that

[@danielhahn7329]

Wow, this is really good. Interesting and concise. Well done.

[@htlind]

thanks for the video your videos are always so helpful!

[@mindalacy]

I would like you to do a whole video on plasmogymy. That would be amazing!

[@robinhuber8002]

At 6:20, you say that lignin is degraded into glucose... That's not true ! Lignin is a polyphenolic structure, not composed of glucose at all. I guess you confuse it with cellulose :)

[@OrangesSC]

This video is awesome! I learned more from this than any of my science classes!

[@tatakon6]

Thank you! This video helped me so much!

[@FungusWhisperer]

This guy'd be cool for a Geo Romero film - NIGHT OF THE LIVING FUNGI ! (Theater trailer narration): "They Feast On the Deceased - nothing is safe from their ghastly appetites - not even bats. It happened to them - it could happen ,.. to you." Sequel - DAWN OF THE ZOMBIE ANTS?

[@sharkish0]

You would love The Last of Us. Also username checks out.

[@SimaoFan]

Can you do a whole episode on zombie ants? It feels like more people should be aware about that kind of fungus

[@vanessahodges2517]

You're awesome. Thank you for these videos!

[@rinadubbeling]

Love your energy! Keep up the good work (y) :-)

[@namegamereviews]

Psilocybin!

[@mattkmcleod]

Muscimol!

[@believen_uboo3705]

😂😂

[@1312x1312]

Its an interesting thought, fungus are closer to the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom, they inhale oxygen and exhale co2 just like us, and they give us this "spiritual" insights.. If you eat enough of it i guess you are starting to believe it's an extraterrestrial lifeform itself hahah, jokes

[@Christian-os3sh]

Only some fungi synthesize psychoactive drugs though, just like some other lifeforms do too. Idk why it's worshipped as some kind of God.

[@djordjevolarevic3872]

@@Christian-os3sh try about 20g of dried cubes.. maybe you'll get it that way

[@M_Chen333]

Hank is such a fun guy :D

[@LukaDebiL]

You mean a fun-gi

[@Sure_fire_]

Great episode. Mushrooms are absolutely amazing. I'm hoping soon to find more information on the bioremediation abilities of fox fire.

[@PinkLove961]

Bio test tomorrow - this is a LIFE SAVER!!! Tank you so much!! :) Good luck to everyone :P

[@tigerfry-stone4438]

Cordiceps - my fav as it featured in the last of us :)

[@OceanBagel]

Don't lie, you've said funji literally every other time in this series...

[@ScionStorm1]

Ocean Bagel Maybe this was secretly his "cry for help" video.

[@Bordelll]

Thanks for talking about mtcorrhizae, so unknown and so important. No boreal forest without these. The soil is so acid, aluminum becomes toxic and the fungi protect the roots.

[@stuartwatson8180]

This video massively plays down the importance and complexity of fungi.

[@horhito93]

Yes, I was about to do my homework

[@triciayeo3289]

I have a test next week

[@Sam2260my]

Thank you! Really helpful.

[@MrFab233]

You make me laugh and learn Hank, thank you!

[@Mr.LaughingDuck]

The 1.5 million spp estimate may now too conservative. That estimate (David Hawksworth 1991) was calculated from data before the start of the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) era that allows for discoveries of greater fungal diversity per sample as well as the surge in fungal DNA sequences databases such as BLAST and UNITE. Accounting for fungi living in the tropics, aquatic, marine, and other habitats, the current range may be anywhere from 1.5 million to 10 million fungal species, with 5.1 million species being the most cited median value. Fun fact: It's estimated that at most only 10% of all fungi can be grown artificially. The remaining 90% require sequencing for discovery and identification.

[@fartx211]

Hank's a fun guy.

[@StephenGillie]

Wow, what a straightforward and uncomplicated video - all facts, no tangents. Why can't we return to these simple ways?

[@amberfisher5515]

I just want to say thanks! I have a test tomorrow. And this really helped😊👍

[@anam6330]

"But, and this is a big butt" LOLOLOL face palm smh

[@funnyvideos-rn5re]

I remember seeing one of these they where a really fun guy

[@BigGreezyJake]

another great video man! shouldve done more on halucinagenic fungi and toxic shrooms tho!!

[@bengisu7643]

this video is so useful for my biology class thanks!!!

[@littlewitchParker3]

Hank is a really fun-guy.

[@ilivetoflyX]

Hmm you say you make ideal conditions for yeast by giving them "lots of suger and oxygen" (at the end of the video) I don't think this is too clear. If a brewer does this in fermentation you won't get any alcohol because it needs to be anaerobic respiration to produce alcohol. Did you mean to make the yeast plentiful before putting it I with the sugar?

[@neogeo8267]

The initial increase in oxygen is used to boost the ability of the yeast to reproduce, thus increasing their population. Once the oxygen is consumed, the mode of aspiration changes and they go off and CO2 and Ethanol and some other trace esters which give various varieties of beer their characteristic flavor profiles. Brewing is fun(gi) lol

[@Allgipan76]

Excellent, funny and teaches really well!

[@erintiffany4938]

Thank you thank you thank you for this lesson ❤

[@kosiokoye2384]

analytically fungi is closer to animals than plants

[@halfblood_drag0n]

fugi come in 3 type, deadly, edible, and magic

[@psycharol]

I am 70,I wander forests and nice places living in my tent for 6 months a year. This year I decided I would find and take photos of lichen and fungi. Thank you for the info on what they are, what they do. Great stuff!

[@kornelszubzda6289]

How old were you when u started living this way? And what is your budget for a 6 mounth journey like this, if I may ask sir?

[@gustavrider5561]

Fungi are amazing organisms, I wonder if there is a simulator of some sort to predict what environments can take them in, for I don't know, space colonization. It seems bringing up certain fungi varieties to space will become a must.

[@maathaindobe]

"more enterprising spores" 😸😸

[@yolkuthesleuth9619]

you kinda look like shaggy in the scooby-doo movie from 2002

[@BobombGaming]

Thanks for helping me cram after not going to class for over a month :)))

[@lukee_v]

a million species of fun guy in the earth

[@jamiesamuels8691]

Who needs Wikipedia for homework and study when you have this

[@sexiibeast411]

Can you make some more in depth microbiology videos?? These are so good, but i need more!!!! hahaha

[@ebonysadecarter]

Love these videos--just for fun!

[@satishgadhe5800]

8:04 his face!!

[@kathleencombs242]

Cuute

[@meegz149]

Came here after finishing The Last of Us:D

[@Seancooke89]

Loved that subtle Bishop Berkley reference Hank ( "that tree that nobody heard fall in the forest" )

[@jamesJohnson-qe4gw]

you're a wonderful group of people *thanks!

[@rachelnadya3302]

The last of us anyone?

[@Argacyan]

An interesting thing to think about : What if there where symbiotic fungi -or other types of liveforms- which would have a "relationship" to humans ? Edit (02.03.2015) : This comment is 9 months old - So, yea...

[@EDUARDO12348]

there is! candida albicans, considered normal flora, but attacks you as soon as your immune system is weak or after taking antibiotics.

[@thepip3599]

If something "attacks" you it's not symbiotic, it's parasitic. Only they are benefiting.

[@Argacyan]

The Pip ok, but that's not even remotely what I'm talking about...

[@aegonusstone3718]

The Pip Parasitism is a type of symbiosis. You're confusing it with mutualism. When it helps you, and you help it back, you are mutual AND symbiotic. Symbiosis literally means living together. A parasite feeds on you without you knowing about it. That is still symbiosis.

[@DCsk8rgoelz]

take a good look into the human microbiome, there are strong arguments to be made that people are less themselves than they are a collection of other organisms (especially when you look strictly at cell numbers; we have more symbiotic bacteria and fungi in and on us than we do our own cells). symbiosis is something that is WAAAAAY more prolific and complicated than most people can imagine and it quickly becomes a philosophical debate about where to draw the line between symbiosis and ecology. NOTE: i am using the broad and scientific definition of symbiosis here (although most of the things in and on our bodies are in fact mutualistic or at least mostly mutualistic) with 'sym-' meaning 'together'. the commenter above is using the more colloquial definition which actually is closer to mutualism (which is a type of symbiosis)

[@khatleencrespo111]

Que buen video!! Gracias

[@MHfan117]

Someone in my freshman writing class is going to write a paper on fungal reproductive cycles because he saw this video. Bless his soul.

[@Man_De]

Who else is coming here after watching the last of us...

[@jmadcookie1277]

3:12 Anaerobic respiration and fermentation are two quite different things...

[@YogeshChithore]

jhnxzj za jhjhuhhhj2bgz wa huh jgvghbbbzbnvynnfhgghbfcjuysvgh Z HzfzhjH g gzbnnzhzjjksh g vh h g vazcvnbztyyzytyzyyvgbxgxggvzbzhgsahgxbxgdvbxxggdfcgxbxggxgxgxgxgjy um bkx z b yfvbzgvh tr cgtb g bvvgncfbv b zbvvbbsqbbxg

[@mazzalina9290]

Josh Jackson no it isn't

[@2527321]

Yes it is

[@animecats77]

Josh Jackson you’re right here’s a passage taken from ThoughtCo. Instead of just ending with the product of glycolysis like fermentation does, anaerobic respiration will create pyruvate and then continue on the same path as aerobic respiration.

[@infinus5]

hank can you and the crash course team do a section on geology? it really hard to get ppl in my science class to listen to our teacher, but they love watching your videos

[@dyllandebeer5599]

great educational video. thanks thanks thanks

[@FraserSouris]

Check out The Last Of Us, this involves Cordecyps affecting humans.

[@Suspishhh23]

Love The Last of Us!

[@jakeduffy_]

So The Last of Us is a possible scenario.

[@APalebloodSky]

Yes and no. The illness could theoretically jump to humans but it wouldn't be able to take over its host's mind so quickly. If you got bitten on the arm, it would take a month at the very least to reach the brain.

[@theomnissiah-9120]

that's still scarce

[@kamikaze6198]

@@APalebloodSky unless the bite is at the neck and near the blood vein that leads to the brain would fasten the rate

[@angy101rulz]

Yes. The cordyceps

[@progames70]

@@kamikaze6198 still not cuz the blood-brain barrier.

[@emwinnie5663]

I love your videos but most of them are so confusing but this video made sense!!! I love fungi!!!

[@FaceofFrequency]

I don't know what else there is, but could you make a supplement video on more details of fungus after the series is over? I know it'll be vacation time....but I just wanna know more about them! They seem like the coolest and least talked about of all living organisms! Like...more about their structure or cellular differences....their development as a cellular level perhaps.

[@lyzax2185]

That’s so freaking old

[@joshuahadams]

Came back here after today's SciSchow on fungi.

[@blazepage1540]

+Josh Adams LOL Same Here

[@josephallison4302]

this has got to be the best subtitle so far.

[@Smengi11]

Really helpful

[@sunshinebloomable]

Why do the vlog brothers know so much stuff?

[@Hashishin13]

sunshinebloomable wikipedia.

[@Pravduh]

+sunshinebloomable at the end he said thank you to those that helped him put this together. He has professors and educators on call i'm sure.

[@JoseGarcia-dn3nn]

+sunshinebloomable he has a degree on biology

[@sowmyakaur8188]

+Jose Garcia biochemistry

[@BenTvHowman]

I have lots of mushrooms in my front yard. I hit it with the mower before some kid could notice the phyicibin varieties

[@ashleycutiebunbunnsprinkle2669]

Hi crash coarse I love ur vids ^-^

[@ABBY-py9kg]

I love crash coarse so damn much!!

[@nicotean8376]

anyone in 2019?🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️