Biologist Toby Kiers Reveals Fungi's Hidden Planetary Role
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- Dr. Toby Kiers, evolutionary biologist and founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, joined the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast with host Ian Sample to discuss her fungal network research.
- Kiers has received both a MacArthur fellowship and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement — sometimes called the "green" Nobel — for her work charting the planet's vital underground systems.
- Kiers described her fieldwork mapping fungal networks on the remote Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean during the episode.
- The podcast frames fungi as an overlooked "invisible force" protecting planetary health, beyond the usual scientific focus on flora and fauna.
- Kiers founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks specifically to advocate for protection and recognition of these fungal ecosystems.
Why it matters: Dr. Toby Kiers' MacArthur fellowship and Tyler Prize (dubbed the 'green' Nobel) signal that underground fungal networks have crossed from niche science into mainstream environmental recognition. Her organization, SPUN, is now pushing for fungi to receive conservation funding and policy attention alongside plants and animals — a shift the podcast argues is overdue given fungi's planetary role.
