Peeps are a good substrate for fungal research because they contain sugar and corn syrup, which some fungi love. But they also contain potassium sorbate, a preservative that prolongs shelf life and prohibits the growth of many molds and yeasts. So Dr. Kasson bought two packages of yellow and pink peeps (with personal funds) and brought them to his lab.

He selected fungi from a stock of cultures he was growing for his daily work investigating their roles in forest pathology. The dozen candidates included fungi common in forests that love sugar, degrade wood, cause diseases in trees or are related to penicillin, which seems to tolerate potassium sorbate.

Which would tolerate this environment? Would any thrive?

With sterile scalpel blades, he sliced a single vertical incision in each bunny’s belly and inserted fungal samples. He repeated this for all 12 fungi in pink and yellow peeps. Twenty-four hours later, he added a drop of sterile water “directly into the incision wounds” of a random set of peeps to assist colonization.

As of now, the fungal plug recipients are being kept in sterile containers and monitored daily. After two weeks, Dr. Kasson will bisect the subjects to search for signs of growth, like mycelium or spores. When the experiment ends, he will isolate anything that took root, or try regrowing the fungal bits he put into the peeps in a regular medium to demonstrate that the candy didn’t kill it.