Under your feet, there are immense networks of mycelia reaching out to communicate with one another. These roots of fungus exist all over the world—under the ocean and up mountains. Although they’re largely out of sight, they perform work that is vital our planetary well-being. They help trees communicate with each other, and serve as a sort of switchboard for entire forests.

The building block of mycelia is a hypha, a tiny, persistent filament that is bound and determined to connect. If a hypha were the size of a human hand, it could lift an 8-ton school bus.

Hypha seeks to work in this branching way, sending out signals, taking in information, and bridging distances.