Unexpected connectedness

As it turns out these Psilocybe Cyanescens, psychedelic mushrooms that popped up in my back yard, are more like humans than plants. According to research reported in the journal Science, animals and fungi share a common evolutionary history and their limb of the genealogical tree branched away from plants more than a billion years ago. It might be why fungal infections are so difficult to treat in humans. Fungal diseases are a particularly severe problem in those with suppressed immune systems, including AIDS patients and people who have had organ transplants. Some believe that this finding will buttress long-standing arguments that fungal cells offer a wonderfully tractable way of looking at essential biological problems of relevance to humans.