Eugenia Bone > Quotes

“I came to realize that no thing on Earth can properly be considered a single entity, but I am and you are composed of multiple life-forms, from different kingdoms of life, all working in concert to be me or you. And every bird (and the tree it lives in) is an ecosystem that participates in an ecosystem that eventually scales up to the planet. This notion has totally upended my idea of what an individual is, be it plant or animal or fungus, or person or place. In light of the new science, the singular noun “I” is obsolete because in reality, “I” is a community.”
― Eugenia Bone, Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms

“The candy cap was a revelation to me: redolent with the smell of maple, marvelously silky and spongy in texture, earth and meaty and sweet. When you eat a candy cap, your skin smells like maple sugar. When you exercise after eating a candy cap, your sweat smells like maple sugar. When you make love after eating a candy cap . . . well, I leave that to your imagination, but . . . yes.”
― Eugenia Bone, Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms

“Baby’s first colonizers are supposed to be predominantly lactobacilli, the microbes picked up in the vaginal canal. Lactobacillus sets up a healthy human gut with positive influence over digestion and immune functions. If other species of bacteria are baby’s first colonizers, the baby’s microbiome sets up differently, maybe harmfully.”
― Eugenia Bone, Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You

“A newborn’s immune system is underdeveloped, which is convenient because it allows for colonization by Mom’s bacteria, but it’s also why young children are prone to infection.”
― Eugenia Bone, Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You

“I asked Dr. White if the same might be true of us, if our physical borders might also be a blur of microbes that connect us to each other and our environment. Do we share an open border connected by microbes with other people? “Well sure,” he said. “That’s one definition of a family.”
― Eugenia Bone, Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You

“High-grade protein and the ability to make vitamin D are just two of a number of similarities humans share with the fungi kingdom”
― Eugenia Bone, Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness, and Save the Planet