Fungi: mycelia, mushrooms & more

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cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/20024226

• A handful of startups in the U.S., Europe and Asia are helping the seafood industry fight plastic pollution by creating equipment made from fungi.
• Efforts are currently focused on replacing plastic foam, a polluting component of numerous elements of the seafood supply chain, with mycelium, the root-like structure of fungi.
• A company in Maine makes mycelium-based buoys for the aquaculture industry, for example.
• Elsewhere, projects are seeking to create biodegradable mycelium-based coolers for transporting fish.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have cracked the code of plant-to-fungi communication in a new study published in the journal Molecular Cell.

EU-funded researchers are using biological matter to create unique new materials that can adapt to their environment and repair themselves.

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• A new study claims that fungi possess great intelligence to the point that they can make decisions.

• A group of scientists tested how fungi would grow across patterns of blocks, and found that they grew in strategic, resource-preserving ways that indicate the ability for communication across the entire mycelial network.

• These findings could not only lead to a better understanding of these relatively mysterious organisms, but to better comprehension of intelligence itself.

New cancer treatments could be on the way, thanks to a surprising discovery involving yeast used to brew beer.

Clark University mycologist David Hibbett answers the internet's burning questions about mushrooms. What's the difference between crimini, button and portobello mushrooms? What are the weirdest mushrooms? Why do "magic" mushrooms exist? How can you tell if they are poisonous or not? David answers all these questions and much more!

Scientists are learning more about how psychedelic mushrooms may alter the brain, potentially leading to long-lasting reversals of depression, anxiety, cluster headaches and more.

How Fungi Are Revolutionizing Sustainability, from Plastic Decomposition to Eco-Friendly Building Materials

GOB is debuting plastic-free earplugs made from Ecovative's Forager mycelium foam, and has teamed up with Billie Eilish and The Lumineers.

In this episode of the CNM Specialist Podcast we welcome Hania Opienski to discuss the incredible world of medicinal mushrooms. Hania is a Naturopathic Nutritionist, traditional Chinese medicine acupuncturist and energy medicine specialist. She applies a holistic approach to health using a synergy of natural eastern, western and energy medicine. She is the education lead and a medicinal mushroom specialist consultant for Hifas Da Terra UK & Ireland.

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Leading mycologist Paul Stamets shares his work exploring the diverse role medicinal mushrooms may have in activating our immune systems and helping treat cancer, to new data supporting the role of fungi in biosecurity and the health of the bees that pollinate our planet.

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/14161554

Posted by Benjamin Young Savage on Mastodon (@benjancewicz@mastodon.social)

I recently went to an exhibition on mushrooms at the botanical garden. Coprinus comatus was the main attraction, as it grows locally and is "mushroom of the year", apparently. If you harvest the caps and let them sit for a couple of days, they liquefy into a brown sludge. Strain that, and you have a beautiful brownish-black particle ink, with the particles being its spores. When young, they are also edible, and they stay non-toxic when liquid. Put a couple of drops of an antibacterial oil in it, and it keeps for some time. (Do not cook to sterilize though, as it congeals. Ruined the first batch like that!)

Fast-growing and strong, mushrooms are moving from the plate to other uses as well: packaging, vegan leather, sneaker soles, and more

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