But take a sober look, and we know our crops and health are at the mercy of fungal diseases. Slayers, Saviors, Servants, and Sex by David Moore is a lively narrative of all the different ways in which fungi have changed us, our history, and our planet. One of the first people to receive penicillin treatment in England in the 1940s was a policeman in Oxford. He died of septicemia when the supplies of the antibiotic ran out after he had been scratched by a rose thorn. Fungi enabled plants to invade the land during the evolution of life on Earth.
Higher fungi are almost unique in their ability to decay the chemical components of timber.
Without the wood-rotting fungi we would be up to our eyes in dead trees. Fungi give us the opportunity of treating plant diseases and killing specific weeds, as well as being very useful for cleaning up polluted environments and for producing chemicals. U.K. He is a past president of the British Mycological Society, and the author and editor of books and academic articles on fungi. All rights reserved.