Sydney Glassman

Yeah.

So in California and other Mediterranean ecosystems, fires are definitely natural and things are adapted to them.

And there's whole books written about the plants and their adaptations to fire.

For example, they have underground tubers.

They have thick bark.

Some plants even have cones that require heat in order to release their seeds.

So they actually require heat in order to reproduce plants.

So there's whole books on this.

We know a lot about plant adaptations to fire, but plants are all associated with microbes as well.

And these fungi and bacteria also have adaptations to fire.

And that's basically what my career is about.

What are these adaptations to fire and how are these microbes, both the bacteria and the fungi surviving and thriving after wildfires?

That's what I want to know.

I was in a pizzeria the other night.

A piece of charcoal from the wood burning fire got on my pizza.

I thought it was like burnt crust.

I took a bite of it and my mouth still feels weird.

I cannot eat charcoal.

Not good for me.

But it's great for these funguses or fungi.