More Than Mere Magic Mushrooms

More Than Mere Magic Mushrooms

news.yahoo.com

This week we're talking about fungus two ways. One that can survive exclusively on polyurethane and another that can replace Styrofoam.

Both polyurethane and styrofoam are not biodegradable, so without a solution, all the plastic bottles and old toys we throw out every year will be sitting in landfills for centuries.

One of the fungi we're looking at is called pestalotiopsis microspora. It was discovered by a group of Yale researchers on an expedition in Ecuador and can subsist on polyurethane alone in airless environments, like the bottom of a landfill.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Bioremediation is an important approach to waste reduction that relies on biological processes to break down a variety of pollutants. This is made possible by the vast metabolic diversity of the microbial world. To explore this diversity for the breakdown of plastic, we screened several dozen endophytic fungi for their ability to degrade the synthetic polymer polyester polyurethane (PUR). Several organisms demonstrated the ability to efficiently degrade PUR in both solid and liquid suspensions. Particularly robust activity was observed among several isolates in the genus Pestalotiopsis, although it was not a universal feature of this genus

aem.asm.org...


So it's always good to see people being innovative while trying to help the Earth. The rainforest seems to have the answer to everything

I hope that they catch on and start being widely used.





news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by RealSpoke


Great find OP, although, in my opinion, these fungi are going to be the most important in the history of mankind:

www.scienceagogo.com...

Chernobyl Fungus Feeds On Radiation

Detailing the research in Public Library of Science ONE, AEC's Arturo Casadevall said his interest was piqued five years ago when he read about how a robot sent into the still-highly-radioactive Chernobyl reactor had returned with samples of black, melanin-rich fungi that were growing on the ruined reactor's walls. "I found that very interesting and began discussing with colleagues whether these fungi might be using the radiation emissions as an energy source," explained Casadevall.

and if the mushrooms are edible without the psychotic effects of certain strains...
we solve world hunger too!!!

now we just need to invent a potato that eats nuclear waste and is safe to eat by humans!

I love 2 birds with one stone scenarios!!

Originally posted by Insearchofthetruth1987
and if the mushrooms are edible without the psychotic effects of certain strains...
we solve world hunger too!!!

now we just need to invent a potato that eats nuclear waste and is safe to eat by humans!

I love 2 birds with one stone scenarios!!

already beat you to it....see my above post.

I'm pretty sure they make biodegradable plastics now, not sure if this fungus is part of it but I don't think it is.

reply to post by RealSpoke

Nice find!Star and Flag.
Now we need a fungus that eats mean people.

S&F for this, very interesting video's that get more interesting in each one. Will definately need to look into this more, I had often thought of growing my own mushroom for food, button mushrooms and such, never got round to it and this has piqued my interest again.

Would also be worth looking at what other uses I could put them too as well, so many varied uses its quite a lot to take in, these people deserve the title of brainiacs, funny how we (mean as a race) worship warriors as hero's yet it is people like these that will save us and save the planet for our kids.

Great post OP, very interesting

reply to post by againuntodust


The whole point is cutting the plastic part out all together.

Using Mycelium and Hemp we could replace plastics, feed the hungry, cloth the cold, medicate everyone,and house the world.

What are we waiting for?

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by RealSpoke

 

Nice find!Star and Flag.
Now we need a fungus that eats mean people.

There is a fungus that eats people, I suppose you could probably weaponize it for mean people

This article posits that fungi and mycelium are the Earth's Natural Internet. It has a lot of quotes from Stamets' books and has the TED video as well

I thought this was interesting

In 1998 scientists discovered that fungi split from animals about 1.538 billion years ago, whereas plants split from animals about 1.547 billion years ago. This means fungi split from animals 9 million years after plants did, in which case fungi are actually more closely related to animals than to plants. The fact that fungi had motile cells propelled by flagella that are more like those in animals than those in plants, supports that. -- Science Daily

so mushrooms could possibly an even better medicine than some herbs. Nice find

Great Post!

I am a huge mushroom lover, I think they are a wonderful spirit here to help us. If you have not seen the documentary "Know Your Mushrooms", check it out, it's amazing!

Originally posted by TheLieWeLive
Using Mycelium and Hemp we could replace plastics, feed the hungry, cloth the cold, medicate everyone,and house the world.

What are we waiting for?

I have no idea. Really we should all just start doing it regardless of the legality of it. If everyone did it there would be literally no way they could enforce their outdated laws.

Without an appropriate test you could be spreading an invasive species.Between the Bees and the Bats there is a problem.

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by RealSpoke

 

Nice find!Star and Flag.
Now we need a fungus that eats mean people.

Shut up idiot.

What the......no....noooooo!!aaarrrggghh......

This just goes to show that no matter what problem is thrown at nature, a solution is not far away. Sure, the "balance" will be thrown out for a few decades, centuries, millennia etc but archaeological findings are pointing to nature bouncing back after some pretty big curve balls.

www.cosmographicresearch.org...

Maybe not the most thoroughly researched link but something to give my opinion some credence.

reply to post by RealSpoke


Great point. It's disgusting how much plastic we are polluting the earth with. Bottled water is out of control, it has created 100 times the problem. ~$heopleNation

Yet another fascinating way nature can alleviate some of man's cosmetic and non-degradable waste which we bestow upon our beautiful planet. One may wonder if there's really a need for Monsanto and their dangerous patented genetically modified organisms at all, we're just too lazy to find the answers that are likely to exist naturally.

Well, instead of trying to adapt to nature, I guess it's easier to make nature adapt to us.

Thanks for sharing the news.

Originally posted by RealSpoke

Thanks for posting this, RS. I watched the first one and I need some time to swallow my anger before watching the other ones. Right now I feel that these magic mushrooms might help to clean up the mess left by the oil companies, but we need to give the oil execs something to prevent this from ever happening again - magic bullets to the head! Jeez!

Originally posted by Insearchofthetruth1987
and if the mushrooms are edible without the psychotic effects of certain strains...
we solve world hunger too!!!

now we just need to invent a potato that eats nuclear waste and is safe to eat by humans!

Rephrase: now we just need to invent a potato that eats humans to prevent nuclear waste!