Fungi are remarkable lifeforms that challenge conventional ideas of intelligence. Despite lacking brains, these organisms exhibit signs of decision-making and communication. But just how complex are they, and what insights can they provide into other forms of awareness? A team of researchers from Japan’s Tohoku University and Nagaoka College sought to explore these questions through an intriguing experiment on the cord-forming fungus Phanerochaete velutina. Their study, published in Fungal Ecology, reveals that fungi can “recognize” different spatial environments and adjust their growth strategies accordingly.

While fungi are often recognized by their aboveground mushrooms, these are merely the surface manifestation of a vast underground network known as mycelium. These intricate webs stretch for miles beneath the soil, capable of transmitting environmental information throughout the network. Yet, the growth of mycelium doesn’t appear random—it seems to follow a deliberate, calculated pattern.

Quantum physics often challenges our understanding of reality, and a new study led by Daniela Angulo from the University of Toronto adds another mind-bending discovery to the mix: photons, the wave-particles of light, can seem to pass through a cloud of atoms in “negative” time, effectively appearing to exit a material before they even enter it.

Aephraim Steinberg, a physicist from the same university, shared this surprising result on X (formerly Twitter), after the team’s findings were uploaded to arXiv.org in early September. While not yet peer-reviewed, the study reveals that photons interacting with a cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms can appear to spend a negative amount of time in the excited state—a phenomenon that defies conventional expectations.