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What If Fungi Win?
Could fungal pathogens outsmart us before we find ways to combat them? Humans and fungi share 50 percent of the same DNA. Because we're related, designing drugs to combat the varieties that attack us is a challenge. Meanwhile, in an ever hotter, wetter world, fungi may be finding new ways to thrive, queueing up global outbreak potentials for which no vaccine and woefully few medications exist; some fungi are already finding ways to resist treatment. Among other lifeforms, bats, amphibians, and essential crops are also increasingly threatened by these pathogens. Enter fungal kingdom frontiersman Dr. Arturo Casadevall, an epidemiologist, professor, and inventor. Casadevall shares how the 1990s AIDS epidemic's fungal complications drove his medical mycology work, how COVID-19's fungal incidences underscored the continuing threat to the immunocompromised, and how he and his Johns Hopkins University laboratory team are discovering ways to counter the threats posed by these smart, hungry combatants. What If Fungi Win? describes the beneficial roles of fungi along with their mischievous and deadly impacts and illustrates how committed experts like Casadevall are researching ways to save us and our food supplies. In addition to an overview of blights, lichens, molds, mushrooms, rusts, and smuts, readers will learn • how fungi proliferated following the mass dinosaur extinction
• Oregon's ancient 2,384-acre Armillaria ostoyae ―Earth's largest organism
• the rye fungus ergot that may have fueled the Salem witch trials
• mushrooms used to create vegan leather and eco-friendly packaging, as well as plastic-consuming fungi
• why it's critical that funding institutions pay attention to fungal risks and aid scientists in their work.
• Oregon's ancient 2,384-acre Armillaria ostoyae ―Earth's largest organism
• the rye fungus ergot that may have fueled the Salem witch trials
• mushrooms used to create vegan leather and eco-friendly packaging, as well as plastic-consuming fungi
• why it's critical that funding institutions pay attention to fungal risks and aid scientists in their work.
224 pages, Paperback
Published May 14, 2024
12 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 19, 2024
"Improbable, but no impossible" I thought this would be a fun quick read and it turned out to be a bit scarier than what I'd anticipated.
Don't get me wrong! I was definitely was engaged and there is quite a bit of interesting information about Fungi I hadn't known before. I just did not realize how much of it is about us and our long separated fungi ancestors. Apparently we are similar enough to fungi to make it harder for them to give us (humans/mammals) more than some discomfort but echoing the fears of "The Last of Us" (game and series) it sounds like this is just good luck? Or from the advantage that we had when we shared the world with dinosaurs who were much bigger and cold blooded. Added to this is the fact that the world is warming up and that it is actually possible for us to lose this advantage of having warmer bodies giving them far more chances of hurting us in a serious way. I've never felt thankful for fevers but I sure do now. I'm also happy that to have avoided unnecessary antibiotics.
A fact that can be used practically here is that if I or a loved one was in a hospital with a mysterious illness it would be very smart to ask to be check for a fungal infection and not wait too long about it. The book also details the trouble we are having with some pollinators like bats who get infected while hibernating at lower temperatures. We've also lost some food like some bananas because it's impossible to get out of the ground. I wonder what Gros Michel bananas tasted like.
The book ends with some of the more positive aspects of what we might be able to do by harnessing fungi neat abilities like BLOCKING RADIATION and the discoveries of the powers of melanated fungi which has even stronger abilities. The book is short, well written and never boring and I look forward to following his work.
Don't get me wrong! I was definitely was engaged and there is quite a bit of interesting information about Fungi I hadn't known before. I just did not realize how much of it is about us and our long separated fungi ancestors. Apparently we are similar enough to fungi to make it harder for them to give us (humans/mammals) more than some discomfort but echoing the fears of "The Last of Us" (game and series) it sounds like this is just good luck? Or from the advantage that we had when we shared the world with dinosaurs who were much bigger and cold blooded. Added to this is the fact that the world is warming up and that it is actually possible for us to lose this advantage of having warmer bodies giving them far more chances of hurting us in a serious way. I've never felt thankful for fevers but I sure do now. I'm also happy that to have avoided unnecessary antibiotics.
A fact that can be used practically here is that if I or a loved one was in a hospital with a mysterious illness it would be very smart to ask to be check for a fungal infection and not wait too long about it. The book also details the trouble we are having with some pollinators like bats who get infected while hibernating at lower temperatures. We've also lost some food like some bananas because it's impossible to get out of the ground. I wonder what Gros Michel bananas tasted like.
The book ends with some of the more positive aspects of what we might be able to do by harnessing fungi neat abilities like BLOCKING RADIATION and the discoveries of the powers of melanated fungi which has even stronger abilities. The book is short, well written and never boring and I look forward to following his work.
May 29, 2024
l was hoping to hear more about what would happen if fungi did win. I was expecting hypothetical futures or maybe predictions. But this is still a mesmerizing read. It's incredibly captivating whether or not you have a deep interest in mycology or not. Love it :)!
March 9, 2025
"As much as I’ve shared about our closest relatives in the fungal kingdom, I want to leave you with the most important point: There is so much more we just don’t know, and what we don’t know could kill us. Or, perhaps, save us."
When I was taking large doses of methotrexate weekly, I shopped for wedding shoes with socks on. I was so embarrassed by my chronic foot fungal infections, which I simply couldn't seem to get rid of, that I was willing to risk buying shoes that didn't fit. Reading Casadevall's wonderfully titled tome, I began to understand why. Casadevall is a medical specialist in fungi, and he was inspired to write this by all his friends asking him how much science the Last of Us was actually based on, and the answer it turns out, is more than you would like.
To be clear, the bit about turning into zombies is not super realistic 🙂. Fungal infections can drive ant behaviour, but our brains are very different to ants. Fungal infections can and do affect human brains, but not so much in a controlled way. But the part that Casedevall argues is plausible is the climate-change induced evolution of fungal species that may lead to an explosion of fungi able to survive in human body temperature - currently just a small fraction. Casadevall posits a theory that it was the warm blooded protection against fungi that assured the rise of mammals in the wake of the asteroid hit that killed off the dinosaurs.
When I was taking large doses of methotrexate weekly, I shopped for wedding shoes with socks on. I was so embarrassed by my chronic foot fungal infections, which I simply couldn't seem to get rid of, that I was willing to risk buying shoes that didn't fit. Reading Casadevall's wonderfully titled tome, I began to understand why. Casadevall is a medical specialist in fungi, and he was inspired to write this by all his friends asking him how much science the Last of Us was actually based on, and the answer it turns out, is more than you would like.
To be clear, the bit about turning into zombies is not super realistic 🙂. Fungal infections can drive ant behaviour, but our brains are very different to ants. Fungal infections can and do affect human brains, but not so much in a controlled way. But the part that Casedevall argues is plausible is the climate-change induced evolution of fungal species that may lead to an explosion of fungi able to survive in human body temperature - currently just a small fraction. Casadevall posits a theory that it was the warm blooded protection against fungi that assured the rise of mammals in the wake of the asteroid hit that killed off the dinosaurs.
April 24, 2025
A little biased because it is my boss' book and my name is mentioned. But a quick read that I'd recommend to friends that summarizes why fungi are important
November 20, 2024
Not as entertaining as Entangled Life but a bit more dark in nature. The question of the title is unanswered, it presents more of we are facing these challenges and this is what has been done or isn’t being done and there is a lot of unknowns. Still very informative and the potential for existential dread 🥹
Biggest practical advice if a family member is septic and bacterial cultures come back negative maybe suggest they test for a fungal infection?
Biggest practical advice if a family member is septic and bacterial cultures come back negative maybe suggest they test for a fungal infection?
July 8, 2025
"Fungi eat death, (...) and in doing so, create life." What happens though, when the death required for their creation is our own?
Arturo Casadevall delivers a concise and informative overview of fungi: he talks about their metabolism, their role in the environment, their hosts, the products they help us create, and the destruction they can leave in their wake. Centered on climate change, the book offers a sobering warning that our actions are making it easier for fungi to become pathogenic and deadly to humans and other species. From the overuse of fungicides, to the over-reliance on cloned crops, to the burning of fossil fuels--our day-to-day activities are increasing the fitness of fungi, making them more likely to sicken us, other animals and our crops, and are going to cause increasing suffering world wide. The rise of immunocompromised patients (be it from cancer treatment, organ transplant, and in rarer cases now HIV infection) may just add to the perfect storm we are creating. Casadevall is very careful to highlight the limits of his theories and our knowledge--something I appreciated after reading multiple science books written by scientists who forgot to temper their writing (see? It can be done!). I actually wished he spent a little more time on some of those limitations and theories. For e.g. he quickly moves away from why we're likely going to need to employ GMO crops in a rapidly heating world, but his arguments are too few and brief. I guess I understand his logic (people who reject GMOs are unlikely to be convinced by any arguments, so why waste time), but I worry the speed with which we advanced to the next topic may be perceived by someone on the fence as 'the author hiding something' (which he isn't but hey, group psychology). Also, because I'm already familiar with most of the scary emergent fungal infections and the extinctions they are causing, I found myself hungry for more new information (that's a me problem). Excepting a small conversion error (between Celsius and Fahrenheit scales) and an unclear statement about using penicillin to treat TB (I think the author was trying to say we later used antibiotics to treat TB, but TB itself cannot be treated by penicillin), the book was extremely accurate and well documented. I hope more people read it and pay attention, because we definitely need to take Fungi serious. Of note: I was unaware that we may need to include bacterial and fungal cycles into our future climate change models, and that microorganisms may be accelerating global temperatures increases. Yiikes
PS: This is also a book showing why refugees need to be treated with respect. This is a man whose family would not be allowed in the US right now; worse, he'd likely be imprisoned, and all the good he's doing would never occur. Humans are valuable resources. No human is illegal. Focus on the real problem humans are creating (like fossil fuel burning and overuse of pesticides) instead of creating imaginary problems.
Arturo Casadevall delivers a concise and informative overview of fungi: he talks about their metabolism, their role in the environment, their hosts, the products they help us create, and the destruction they can leave in their wake. Centered on climate change, the book offers a sobering warning that our actions are making it easier for fungi to become pathogenic and deadly to humans and other species. From the overuse of fungicides, to the over-reliance on cloned crops, to the burning of fossil fuels--our day-to-day activities are increasing the fitness of fungi, making them more likely to sicken us, other animals and our crops, and are going to cause increasing suffering world wide. The rise of immunocompromised patients (be it from cancer treatment, organ transplant, and in rarer cases now HIV infection) may just add to the perfect storm we are creating. Casadevall is very careful to highlight the limits of his theories and our knowledge--something I appreciated after reading multiple science books written by scientists who forgot to temper their writing (see? It can be done!). I actually wished he spent a little more time on some of those limitations and theories. For e.g. he quickly moves away from why we're likely going to need to employ GMO crops in a rapidly heating world, but his arguments are too few and brief. I guess I understand his logic (people who reject GMOs are unlikely to be convinced by any arguments, so why waste time), but I worry the speed with which we advanced to the next topic may be perceived by someone on the fence as 'the author hiding something' (which he isn't but hey, group psychology). Also, because I'm already familiar with most of the scary emergent fungal infections and the extinctions they are causing, I found myself hungry for more new information (that's a me problem). Excepting a small conversion error (between Celsius and Fahrenheit scales) and an unclear statement about using penicillin to treat TB (I think the author was trying to say we later used antibiotics to treat TB, but TB itself cannot be treated by penicillin), the book was extremely accurate and well documented. I hope more people read it and pay attention, because we definitely need to take Fungi serious. Of note: I was unaware that we may need to include bacterial and fungal cycles into our future climate change models, and that microorganisms may be accelerating global temperatures increases. Yiikes
PS: This is also a book showing why refugees need to be treated with respect. This is a man whose family would not be allowed in the US right now; worse, he'd likely be imprisoned, and all the good he's doing would never occur. Humans are valuable resources. No human is illegal. Focus on the real problem humans are creating (like fossil fuel burning and overuse of pesticides) instead of creating imaginary problems.
June 2, 2024
As a medical mycology PhD student, my PI recommended this book to me as Casadevall is a big name in our field. Overall, this book did good job in explaining the current concerns in fungal disease and giving interesting examples for the readers. I was interested to hear his insights, but unfortunately found most of this book was surface level. Personally, I got a lot more out of Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake in terms of "fun-ness" to read. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in getting an introduction to medical mycology, why you should care, and why you should be fascinated.
Happy reading,
-Beppa
Happy reading,
-Beppa
October 15, 2024
This book offers a very surface-level overview of fungi potentially becoming Earth's dominant life form. While the premise is intriguing, it disappoints by not exploring hypothetical situations of a post-human, fungal-dominated world in depth.
February 1, 2025
What could happen if fungi become better able to infect humans. More about fungal infections in humans and plants than it is about fungi in general. Not a lot of cute mushroom stories in this one.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews