Bettina Wurche about Tardigrades and Giant Mushrooms

Science Fiction Double Feature

8. December 2017

FedCon 27 | Vortrag | Firefly, Vaquita und Schweinswal

Firefly, Vaquita & Porpoise

20. December 2017

Published by Robert Eiba at 15. December 2017

FedCon 27 | Vortrag | Bärtierchen und Riesenpilze

Star Trek: Discovery places a mushroom at the centre of an SF saga for the first time… and at the centre of the FedCon lecture Tardigrades and Giant Mushrooms by Bettina Wurche.

With a spore drive, the USS Discovery moves through an interstellar mushroom mesh in a super-fast way. Prototaxites is the new astromycological star – the legendary giant fossil mushroom. And as a mushroom navigator, the 3-meter version of a water tardigrade also appears!

Prototaxistes is an eight-metre-high fossil fungus that lived 400 million years ago in alien ecosystems. Mushrooms are fascinating creatures, more like animals than plants – and they have a lot of unusual characteristics. Tardigrades are microscopically small and extremely hard to handle – as experienced astronauts, they are old acquaintances for space geeks.

The new Star Trek series offers a lot of material for biology and fossil lovers interested in SF. The theme of the lecture Tardigrades and Giant Mushrooms, presented by Bettina, will certainly provide all the other FedCon visitors with a wealth of exciting facts.

Lecturer: Bettina Wurche

Duration: 45 min - The Lecture will be held in: german

The biologist and journalist Bettina Wurche is a professing science fiction fan. Today, she manages the press and public relations work of a small museum. Specialising in aquatic biology and palaeontology, she has been on the trail of whales in the Arctic and Antarctic, works as a geopark ranger and biologist in the transfer of knowledge and, as a science journalist, prefers to write about whales and the sea. She is also a successful science blogger and writes the science blog "meertext".

As a speaker she likes to talk about whales and oceans of the present, the past or the future, astrobiology, evolution and similar topics. Bettina presents another lecture at FedCon with the promising title Firefly, Vaquita & Porpoise.