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Tech NewsNew Study Suggests Alzheimer’s Is Associated with Brain Fungus
Every year, more people over the age of 65 are suffering from dementia. Researchers are still searching for a cause, but a new study offers a fascinating possibility: some cases of Alzheimer’s may be linked to a simple brain fungus. The study appeared this week in Nature Scientific Reports, and is already making headlines and … Continued
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Tech News
The Future Will Be Full of Mushroom Batteries
The portabello mushroom: Great with grilled onions and ketchup, sure, but this fungus can do a lot more than console vegetarians at barbecues. In the future, the humble portabello mushroom might power everything from our smartphones to our cars. The anodes in the lithium ion batteries that charge our devices are made of graphite, a … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsSploidThis is the only mushroom in the world that tastes sweet like honey
In Hungary there is a sweet Hungarian truffle that supposedly tastes like honey. I can’t even begin to imagine how fantastic that is because truffles are already “the diamonds of the kitchen” and honey very well might be nature’s greatest creation, so combining both in one is practically unfair. The truffle is used in dessert … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9Real Plants And Fungi That Look Like Something From The Monstrous Manual
The Earth is a weird, weird place and there are some weird, weird organisms living on it. Just take a look at these members of the plant and fungal kingdoms, which sometimes look like something dreamed up for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Monkey Face Orchid (Dracula simia), lives on the side of mountains in … Continued
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Tech News
The Technology That Will Build Our Future May Be Found In Mushrooms
The key to the human race’s future may be right beneath our feet. It sounds bizarre, but fungi better known as mushrooms can help solve many of society’s greatest challenges, from cleaning up the environment and living more sustainability to colonizing other planets. Threaded into nearly every square inch of the ground are tiny, biological … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
io9
It’s 2.4 Miles Across, 8,650 Years Old, and It Lives in Oregon
No, it’s not hipster Cthulhu. Known as “honey fungus,” this huge underground organism is the world’s biggest living thing. And its life cycle is incredible. Photo of honey fungus by Stu’s Images The fungus lives largely underground, but it grows fruiting bodies above the soil that look like creamy yellow mushrooms. If you were picking … Continued
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io9
The Solution to Disposable Diaper Waste Is Apparently Mushrooms
Disposable diapers are made to be super-absorbend and super-durable — all the better for handling the all the waste produced by a human baby. All the worse for the environment because the diapers last hundreds of years in landfills. But a new project cut waste by using the diapers to grow mushrooms. Project leader Rosa … Continued
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io9
Nevermind Drought — The Biggest Threat to Our Food Supply Is Fungus
Within 30 years, it’s likely that farmers will be battling deadly crop pests that they’ve never seen before. Pests are evolving and entering new regions in greater numbers than ever — and our worst adversary is likely to be fungus, which could destroy whole harvests and wreak havoc with our food supplies. Blumeria photo by … Continued
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io9
Why do rotten foods taste so awful?
Biting into a rotten piece of fruit or meat is a thoroughly unpleasant experience. According to a 40-year-old theory, it’s because microbes have evolved to taste disgusting as a way to fend off competitors — namely you. But proving this theory has been difficult, until now. Back in 1977, ecologist Daniel Janzen proposed the idea … Continued
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io9
This 3D-printed chair is part plastic, part fungus
Usually, finding fungus growing on your furniture isn’t a good thing, but mushrooms are a key component of Eric Klarenbeek’s MyceliumChair. In fact, the chair won’t be ready to support a person’s weight until the fungus is mature. Klarenbeek worked with the Mushroom Research Group at University of Wageningen to create a piece of furniture … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsA Poop-Loving Fungus That Accelerates Faster Than a Bullet
What’s faster: A bullet or the fungus Pilobolus? The folks over atEarth Unplugged are back to give us a rare look at one of the fastest things on the planet, which—surprising as it may seem—is none other than this poop-loving fungus. Here, though, we’re talking fastest in terms of acceleration. Because though each spore may … Continued
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io9If this mushroom were a Smurf home it would be an apartment complex
A giant mushroom measuring 36 inches across and weighing 33 pounds has been discovered by locals in China’s Yunnan province. But as grotesquely huge as this fungus appears to be, it’s far from being a world record. It’s still not known what species this mushroom belongs to, or if it’s even edible. It’s also unclear … Continued
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io9
The disease-causing fungi that lurk in your dishwasher
Researchers have found that dishwashers are particularly conducive to the growth and spread of disease-causing fungi. These fungi have been implicated in causing lung diseases and sometimes fatal infections, especially among those with weak immunity. Photo Credit: Bart Everson Fungi come in many different forms. According to a study published this month and another published … Continued
Kausik Datta, Johns Hopkins Medicine – The Conversation -
io9The most original (and scientifically plausible) zombies of the year
We’re all feeling a little let down by the World War Z movie, but that doesn’t mean the zombie trope has expired. In fact, this year witnessed the emergence of an utterly original kind of zombie — and it’s even scientifically plausible. I’m speaking, of course, about the “infected” from the game The Last of … Continued
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Tech News
The Supermaterial That Could Make Plastic Obsolete Is… Mushrooms?
Fungus is, almost universally, not a good thing to have in your walls or personal belongings. And normally, selling certain strains could lead to federal charges. But a company called Ecovative is violating both of those rules, creating packaging and building materials from fungus—and they’re being lauded as visionaries for it. Ecovative was founded by … Continued
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io9
This disease’s deadliest weapon is the fact you’ve never heard of it
A deadly fungal infection has been spreading across western North America. The number of human and animal cases has grown rapidly in recent years, to the extent that government agencies in US and Canada have labelled the infection an outbreak. Top image by Paxson Woelber The infection, cryptococcosis, affects the lungs first, because it is … Continued
Kausik Datta, Johns Hopkins Medicine – The Conversation -
io9
This Fungus Is Growing All Over Your Body
Your body is covered in tiny fungal ecosystems. No, really, it is. And now, for the first time, scientists have mapped the places where fungus grows the most on your skin. Fungal richness varies across your body, but the most diverse communities of these microbes live on your feet. In recent years, scientists have devoted … Continued
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io9
How a pregnancy test for humans caused a wave of global extinctions
The deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has been wiping out amphibian species across the globe for decades. But how did this global environmental disaster get started? A new study suggests that it came from doctors importing frogs for use in pregnancy tests. Since the 1980s, amphibian species have experienced a sharp decline in their numbers. Some … Continued
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Tech NewsHow Mushrooms Will Solve the Worlds’ Biggest Problems
Mushrooms may be most famous for their pizza prowess and psychedelic strains, but Paul Stamets, renowned mycologist and mushroom enthusiast, has much loftier visions for everyone’s favorite fungi. He believes that the solution to some of the world’s biggest problems lies in mushroom farming. More specifically he posits that—mycelium, the tight network of filaments out … Continued
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io9
Sexual fungus could be the key to revolutionizing penicillin
Though penicillin was once a miracle cure for bacterial infections ranging from syphilis to staph, it is slowly becoming obsolete. Bacteria are evolving antibiotic resistance, and medicine is racing to keep up by producing new and different forms of the drug. Penicillin and its derivatives come from a fungus called Penicillium chrysogenum. It’s been difficult … Continued