In a desert landscape, some children play hide-and-seek. The remains of dry stone walls and a few abandoned objects seem to bear witness to a long-evaporated civilisation.
In a desert landscape, among the ruins, children play hide-and-seek. The remains of walls and a few abandoned objects seem to bear witness to a civilisation that has long since evaporated. Francesca, the youngest of the group, is marked by the discovery of a dead fish which becomes the object of the other children's games. The next day, back at the site, the little girl discovers that other people have been attracted to the remains that the disappearance of this huge artificial lake has revealed.
Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers takes us along on her epic quest to map the world's fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it's too late.
Beneath our feet lies a mystery. A complex underground network of mycorrhizal fungi keeps our ecosystem alive by exchanging nutrients and carbon with almost all plants on Earth. Remarkably, no one knows exactly how these sophisticated and ancient systems operate, or how they are affected by climate change.
The Underground Astronaut follows evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, named one of the 2022 TIME100 Next Innovators, on her quest to map the world's fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it's too late. A fragrant and high-stakes journey into the soil. “No fungi, no future.”
The Underground Astronaut is part of Ammodo Docs, a series of short documentaries about original minds in arts and science.
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.