Northern boreal forests are easily recognized for their majestic trees and have been credited with helping to sequester much of the world’s carbon dioxide. It was originally thought that vegetative matter was what was sinking the greenhouse gas. Now, a diverse team of scientists from Sweden have discovered that these great, soaring plants are getting a lot of help from some humble decomposers living in the soil. Their findings, published in the journal Science, revealed that fungi were responsible for up to an incredible 70 percent of soil carbon in certain samples.

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Post tags: boreal forest, carbon dioxide, Climate Change, decomposition, fungus, global warming, mushroom, mycorrhiza, science, soil, Sweden

Feeding seven billion hungry humans is no easy task – especially when crop-killing insects are competing for first dibs on agriculture. Deadly chemical pesticides have been the go-to fix for the conventional agricultural industry, but new research suggests that biopesticides made from fungi, insects, or other plants could be a safer, more planet-friendly alternative. One particular variety of biopesticide, a mushroom derivative called “Green Muscle”, has been used to ward off locust invasions in Africa, preventing famine for thousands.

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Post tags: agriculture, biomimicry, biopesticides, crops, food, fungus, global population, Green Muscle, locusts, mushrooms, non-toxic, pesticides, pests

Fungus might ruin your bread but its invasive nature could also lead to a new source of renewable energy. Scientists at Montana State University made a surprising discovery while conducting a recent study that tracks the unique products of endophytes — fungi or bacteria — that can live inside a plant for at least part of its life without causing disease. It’s believed that endophytes produce bioactive products that are potentially beneficial for medicine, industry and energy uses, replacing less attractive biofuels like ethanol.

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Post tags: Alternative Fuel, biofuels, ETHANOL, fungi, fungus, hydrocarbons, mold, Montana State University, plants, VOCs, volatile organic compounds

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Post tags: Artist, artist conk mushroom, celestial bodies, corey corcoran, drawings, etchings, fungus, ganoderma applanatum, human figures, illustrator, insects, plants

Read the rest of Philip Ross Molds Fast-Growing Fungi Into Mushroom Building Bricks That Are Stronger than Concrete

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Post tags: architecture and the city, Art, eco-art, eco-friendly building materials, fungi, fungus, Ganoderma lucidum, green building materials, green materials, green san francisco, mushroom art, mushroom bricks, mushrooms, mycelium, Mycology, mycotecture, Phil Ross, Philip Ross, Reishi mushrooms, The Workshop Residence

Normally, finding mold on your instrument would make any violinist panic. Fungus needs heat and moisture to grow, both of which are deadly to the delicate woods used to make stringed instruments. But according to new research from Switzerland, fungus could be the secret to making a ho-hum violin indistinguishable from a Stradivarius – one of the most highly prized violins in the world.

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Post tags: fungi, fungus, mold, musical instruments, stradiavarius, violin making, Wood

There has been a general consensus that plant life such as fungi and other biomass would be a key asset in preventing and mitigating climate change effects by storing additional carbon in the soil. However, an international team of plant biologists from Penn State say that may not be the case. Their research has found that increased carbon dioxide stimulates the growth of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, a type of fungus that is often found in the roots of most land plants, which in turn leads to higher decomposition rates of organic materials.

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Post tags: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, biologists, biomass, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide absorption, carbon dioxide stimulation, fungi, fungus, Penn State

A group of scientists from the University of Washington in Seattle and New Mexico State University believe they have found the key in making plants robust enough to endure extreme drought conditions, like the ones currently sweeping the US. The team believe that by utilizing microbiome, the mixture of fungi, bacteria and viruses that live in the root systems of every plant, they can engineer plants to survive extreme heat.

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Post tags: biotech, Climate Change, extreme weather, fungus, new mexico state university, superplants, university of washington, us droughts

Plastics represent one of the biggest waste problems in the world because they take a really, really long time to break down. But a recent discovery by a group of Yale students could help speed the process. On an expedition to the rainforest of Ecuador, students from Yale’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry discovered a previously unknown fungus that has a healthy appetite for polyurethane. According to Fast Company, the fungus is the first one that is known to survive on polyurethane alone, and it can do so in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment, which suggests that it could be used at the bottom of landfills.

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Post tags: biology, ecuador, fungi, fungus, landfills, microbes, Pestalotiopsis microspora, plastic, polymers, polyurethane, Yale, Yale University

Dish soap and sponges could be endangered species if a group of Swiss scientists have their way. Scientists have figured out a way to develop a self-cleaning plastic that, with the help of some special fungus, can eat spilled food. The scientists have described the plastic as “the first eating material,” and it’s one that could have seemingly limitless consumer applications. Keep reading to see how the magic plastic works.

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Post tags: bacteria, bleu cheese, blue cheese, fungus, plastic, science, Self-cleaning plastic, Switzerland, Technology

Ushering in a new generation of partially compostable cars, Ecovative has teamed up with Ford to use their mushroom-based foam as a key component in bumpers, side doors, and dashboards. The best part is that the material will decompose just one month after being buried. Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer discovered that mycelia (mushroom roots) are a natural binding agent that can be combined with agricultural products such as corn and oat husks to make an incredibly durable material that can replace styrofoam and polystyrene in practically every application. Several companies from a number of industries are looking to the Green Island, NY-based startup to cook up alternative materials for their products as well — so we can finally leave polystyrene and styrofoam in our earth-loving dust.

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Post tags: agricultural waste, car parts, compostable, cosmetics, ecovative, foam, ford, fungus, mushroom packaging, mycelium, oat husks, packaging material, reuse

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait are in the midst of a massive project to re-landscape their deserts and transform them into fertile farmland, providing food security for their future. The countries are utilizing a mixture of microbes and soil — called mycorrhiza — that allows plants to absorb more nutrients than they can alone. By researching areas that have significant amounts of water and soil fertility and harnessing mycorrhiza they have already been able to convert 4,000 square meters of “hyper-saline waste-land” into a vegetable and grain producing farm.

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Post tags: abu dhabi, arid land, desert, dubai, farm, farmland, food scarcity, food security, fungus, irrigation, kuwait, mycorrhiza, persian gulf, qatar, united arab emirates

BPA is nasty stuff–the chemical is linked to obesity, cancer, and endocrine problems in fetuses and children. It’s also ubiquitous in our daily lives, present in 2.7 million tons of plastic used to make water bottles, medical devices, and more. We’d prefer that BPA be removed entirely from plastics, but in the meantime, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have found a way to safely break down BPA at the end of a product’s life: fungus.

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Post tags: BPA, eco design, fungi, fungus, green design, plastic