In Cleveland, mushrooms digest entire houses

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240314-fungi-can-be-used-to-clean-pollution-and-combat-climate-change

by geox • 2 years ago

116 79 2 years ago

Years ago, in a pool of improperly disposed of motor oil in the corner of my ex-girlfriend's parent's yard, I was amazed to discover mushrooms that started growing in the oil and looked like they were consuming the oil. Each winter, when mushroom conditions were ripest, they returned until the stump the pool of oil gathered around sprouted new branches and started growing again. Turns out there are species of mushrooms that consume oil on the surface of the planet.

So this doesn't shock me at all, its an example of how regardless of humanity's arrogance, life on Earth will be around long after our species and its descendants cease to exist, to think otherwise is to prove one's ignorance.

x86x873• 2 years ago

Yeah. Lookup Mycellium Running by that wacky dude Stamets. There are mushroom species that can be emplotey to cleanup nasty oil spills and stuff.

Also, there are mushroom species that can breakdown plastics in effect getting rid of stuff that woulf take hundreds/thousads of years to decompose.

Mushrooms are amazing

x86x873• 2 years ago

Here: https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_6_ways_mushrooms_can_...

ProllyInfamous2• 2 years ago

Mushrooms are amazing

Lichens are incredible. Check out the book Entangled Life, which Paul Stamets proclaims is "a must-read!"

DANmode• 2 years ago

Any evidence, here or elsewhere, that it completely consumed the toxic compounds?

Neat evidence either way, that they thrive in that condition.

lioeters• 2 years ago

Mycoremediation (from ancient Greek μύκης (mukēs), meaning "fungus", and the suffix -remedium, in Latin meaning 'restoring balance') is a form of bioremediation in which fungi-based remediation methods are used to decontaminate the environment.
Fungi have been proven to be a cheap, effective and environmentally sound way for removing a wide array of contaminants from damaged environments or wastewater. These contaminants include heavy metals, organic pollutants, textile dyes, leather tanning chemicals and wastewater, petroleum fuels, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides and herbicides in land, fresh water, and marine environments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoremediation

wolverine8762• 2 years ago

life on Earth will be around long after our species and its descendants cease to exist, to think otherwise is to prove one's ignorance.

Who says otherwise?

medoc• 2 years ago

It's a common misconception that the reason we should be more frugal is to save the planet, ecosystems, or cute animals.

CSMastermind• 2 years ago

The biology and evolutionary history of fungi is incredibly fascinating.

To my (admittedly layman) understanding, they're sort of life's premiere resource extractors. Their whole thing is breaking down things that other life can't, so it's not surprising at all that some species can consume oil.

We know they co-evolved with plants, and one theory suggests that fungi allowed plants to make the jump from water to land by using their hyphae to act as a proto-root system, unlock nutrients like phosphorus from the soil, and transport water, while early land plants provided sugars produced from photosynthesis in return.

One of the main differentiations that might have led to the split between proto-fungi and proto-animals is their nutrient acquisition strategy. The organism that would become fungi had extracellular digestion, while the organism that would become animals captured and ingested other organisms.

This split led to different approaches to cellular adhesion along with different developmental and signaling pathways (different strategies for achieving homeostasis for instance).

---

If you want to read about some really wild stuff, look up the Late Paleozoic era in the Carboniferous period. Basically plants evolved Lignin (wood) but there was nothing in the world that could break it down so it rapidly accumulated along with a hyperoxgenated atmosphere due to the extensive growth. This meant there were 8 foot long millipedes and dragonflies that size of crows flying around. There were also massive forest fires spanning the globe since fire was one of the only ways to get rid of the lignin until, eventually, some fungi evolved to take care of the problem.

maxmalkav• 2 years ago

Basically plants evolved Lignin (wood) but there was nothing in the world that could break it down so it rapidly accumulated along with a hyperoxgenated atmosphere due to the extensive growth.

That was my understanding too until recently, when I have read in a couple of places that things might not have been like that. Checking the Wikipedia article about Carboniferous [1] it seems there is not consensus yet:

"There is ongoing debate as to why this peak in the formation of Earth's coal deposits occurred during the Carboniferous. The first theory, known as the delayed fungal evolution hypothesis, is that a delay between the development of trees with the wood fibre lignin and the subsequent evolution of lignin-degrading fungi gave a period of time where vast amounts of lignin-based organic material could accumulate. Genetic analysis of basidiomycete fungi, which have enzymes capable of breaking down lignin, supports this theory by suggesting this fungi evolved in the Permian. However, significant Mesozoic and Cenozoic coal deposits formed after lignin-digesting fungi had become well established, and fungal degradation of lignin may have already evolved by the end of the Devonian, even if the specific enzymes used by basidiomycetes had not. The second theory is that the geographical setting and climate of the Carboniferous were unique in Earth's history: the co-occurrence of the position of the continents across the humid equatorial zone, high biological productivity, and the low-lying, water-logged and slowly subsiding sedimentary basins that allowed the thick accumulation of peat were sufficient to account for the peak in coal formation."

One way or another, I find fascinating how different the planet has been along its geologic periods.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous#Coal_formation

Shekelphile• 2 years ago

We are actually in the last 20% of time remaining for life on earth to exist. Multicellular life will likely go extinct within a few hundred million years.

whutsurnaym• 2 years ago

That's not information I'd heard before. Do you have a source?

Log_out_• 2 years ago

So encode human genomes into mushrooms, so we rise again? Great idea

hypercube334• 2 years ago

Wasn't that an episode of SG1 with the mushroom humanoids?

justrealist2• 2 years ago

I like the idea in principle but I would love a more clear analysis of where the lead paint from old dismantled houses ends up. I wouldn't want to use mycelium bricks in my house, if I thought they were going to leach toxins into everything they touch...

bongodongobob6• 2 years ago

Please explain how something as inert as lead "leaches".

justrealist2• 2 years ago

It literally contaminates into the soil. This happens with all sorts of lead pipes, cables, etc.

This is not me making things up, it's a huge concern when urban gardening.

klyrs• 2 years ago

Unless the lead is transmuted into something benign (spoiler: nope), one must account for where it's going.

lightedman• 2 years ago

Simple warm pH-imbalanced water is all you need. I can make cerrusite artificially with older lead-plumbed copper pipe and a moderate temperature (50C) pH-imbalanced hard water source, run that whole discharge through a water carbonation system and let the results evaporate under pressure. Bam. In a day I've leached lead out and crystallized it into another form that you would find in volcanic fields.

Note: The leaching takes almost no time, the evaporation is the majority of time needed for forming the cerrusite. Lead is nowhere near as inert as you imagine it to be. It oxidizes readily.

patmorgan23• 2 years ago

If lead never leached into anything, I'm sure you won't have a problem with installing lead pipes in your home.

adammarples2• 2 years ago

2Pb(s)+ O2(g) + 2H2O(l) -> 2 Pb(OH)2(s)

dkbrk• 2 years ago

This is a good question and you shouldn't have been downvoted for it. I had a similar concern.

I think the answer is this [0]:

Many fungi are hyperaccumulators, therefore they are able to concentrate toxins in their fruiting bodies for later removal.

And the linked article alludes to that:

Heavy metals and other toxins are extracted and captured in the mushrooms that grow, while the substrate leftovers, including the mycelium, are compacted and heated to create clean bricks for new construction.

Presumably they validate that the process results in the substrate having an acceptably low level of toxins before using it as material for new construction.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoremediation

echelon• 2 years ago

I'm worried of breathing in fungi. They're already known carcinogens. If these shed spores, they could establish a latent infection. This is what fungi do.

We're already all encountering this on a day to day basis at a background level. No reason to increase exposure.

mikeweiss• 2 years ago

Curious... do you eat mushrooms?

Uptrenda• 2 years ago

I think I heard somewhere that if not for a few degrees in temperature human beings would be plagued by many fungal diseases. But because of our body temperature (and immune system) they find it very hard to live in our bodies. I'm wondering if global warming will accelerate the adaption of fungi to higher temperatures and therefore potentially allowing a new species to invade us. The future is fun and holds many things to look forward to. Perhaps we can become one with the mushrooms some day.

Nux• 2 years ago

It was a film :) .. wouldn't let that in serious conversation.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OLNagvJHl3g

bamboozled• 2 years ago

In more worried about what is lurking in permafrost…

CyberDildonics• 2 years ago

You realize there are already a lot of different climates on earth right?

offtrail3• 2 years ago

I'm worried of breathing in fungi

I have some bad news for you. You do with every breath.

They're known carcinogens

Depends on the mushroom. Many are actually anti cancer, but I'm going to to assume you meant breathing the spores. It's only a concern if you're in an enclosed space. Like a fruiting room full of oyster mushrooms.

they could establish a latent infection. This is what fungi do.

Having a fungal infection isn't necessarily bad thing. YOU have a fungal community in and on you right now. They're protecting you even as you read this. It's been shown that inculating trees with chaga mushrooms can prevent infections from other more aggressive parasites and blights. Fungi are your friends. Oyster mushrooms aren't going to infect you. If anyone would, I'd put my money on cordyceps. And those aren't used for mycorestoration.

We're already all encountering this on a day to day basis at a background level. No reason to increase exposure.

Gonna have to disagree. Humans are responsible for completely fucking the mycelial mass of earth. We knocked a big cog out of the carbon cycle through mass development of the land, mass use of pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers. Pavement everywhere. And we absolutely need to fix it. Good news for you though, people are working on sporeless strains of fungi used in mycorestoration. Soon your worries will be irrelevant.

CarRamrod• 2 years ago

If you go inside, you get to choose from one of three treasure chests.

mikewarot• 2 years ago

In nearby East Chicago, Indiana, the lead level in some tested soils reached 9.1% (91,000 ppm) [1] If this could be used to capture that lead, and separate it out, you could mine the soil, while you treat a superfund site at the same time.

[1] https://www.nrdc.org/stories/east-chicago-knowing-your-soil-...

toomuchtodo• 2 years ago

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266601642...

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/10/3528

rekabis• 2 years ago

Maybe with a little research and genetic manipulation we can engineer the world of Nausicaä, where an entire ecosystem of fungi purge the world of toxins from man’s prior technological civilizations.

hypercube334• 2 years ago

I was thinking more of the world of Command and Conquer where we engineer Tiberium to do mining for us

nitwit0052• 2 years ago

Presumably, if the fungus takes in toxic metals, someone has to go through the wood and collect the body of the fungus, and do some significant chemistry later to extract it out?

Sharlin2• 2 years ago

Apparently they’re able to concentrate absorbed contaminants in their fruiting bodies. Very convenient. At least as long as we’re talking about species that are nonedible in the first place.

Anotheroneagain3• 2 years ago

I suppose it's to motivate animals to eat them. Even people prefer food high in heavy metals by taste.

nitwit0052• 2 years ago

That still means a fairly low concentration overall. It's not as if it's going to make a solid lead mushroom.

t1c• 2 years ago

.......only in Ohio

ginko• 2 years ago

Effectively what we're doing is diverting tonnage from landfill

Wouldn’t digesting the house release more co2 to the atmosphere than just burying it in an anaerobic landfill?

offtrail3• 2 years ago

About half the mycelial mass will be released as co2.* With oysters anyway. The rest will ideally become healthy top soil for plants that off set the co2. They also remediate toxic chemicals within the house. In the landfill, all that matter is locked away from the flow of matter and energy that make for a healthy world. We should really only be using anaerobic landfills for plastics and things that need a lack of oxygen to be broken down. Even then, large scale bioreactors might be more effective and take up less land. I bet old mines would work great for that.

lossolo• 2 years ago

There are mushrooms that "eat" radiation from nuclear waste.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus

ildon• 2 years ago

This is the missing prequel to "The last of us"

Pine_Mushroom3• 2 years ago

For a contrarian take on mycoremediation here is a quote from noted mycologist Alan Rockefeller:

"Mycoremediation barely works, most times I think it is better to save the time and energy and let nature do the remediation. Particularly with regards to mycofiltration, eating oil and heavy metal removal. If you do nothing at all, natural bacteria and fungi in the environment will do the remediation - so maybe just mix in some substrate, turn the soil and let nature do the rest.

Regarding mycofiltration, doesn't really work and even if it did, wouldn't take long for the mycelium to go anarobic and die. One idea I heard is to just dump a truck load of wood chips in the stream, and let nature do the rest. At least that way you are not wasting energy making spawn. No idea if this works at all.

You can eat oil with oyster mushrooms, but it has to be at really low concentrations, and you probably burn more oil than you eat making the spawn. Natural bacterias eat oil too and they are everywhere.

Regarding Paul, he is a great salesman and ambassador, and he has gotten a lot of people into mushrooms. For that he deserves to be held in high regard. He is pretty cool in person. I do think he probably oversells his products, and that medicinal mushrooms shouldn't be sold as medicine until they are proven to work. Turkey tails have been proven to work (but not very much), and the rest of them are pretty much untested in large clinical trials. Mushrooms do make excellent placebos.

If you ask professional mycologists about Stamets or mycoremediation or medicinal mushrooms, they typically change the subject pretty quick, if they are feeling polite.

There are a ton of people doing mycoremediation trials, but almost no one scaling it up to solve real world problems. Every idealistic first year college mycology student wants to save the world with mushrooms, but by the time they get a PhD they are thinking very differently.

Tradd Cotter and Peter Mccoy are doing a lot of work with mycoremediation, but I notice that they are mostly making their money writing books and giving workshops/lectures rather than actually doing it. But they probably answer their emails and would be excellent people to talk to about details and new ideas."

thfuran• 2 years ago

heavy metal removal. If you do nothing at all, natural bacteria and fungi in the environment will do the remediation - so maybe just mix in some substrate, turn the soil and let nature do the rest.

And where exactly will the bacteria send the heavy metal?

Pine_Mushroom3• 2 years ago

This is beyond my expertise, but here is a quote from a paper on the subject:

"Bacteria have several methods of processing heavy metals through general resistance mechanisms, biosorption, adsorption, and efflux mechanisms. Bacillus spp. are model Gram-positive bacteria that have been studied extensively for their biosorption abilities and molecular mechanisms that enable their survival as well as their ability to remove and detoxify heavy metals. This review aims to highlight the molecular methods of Bacillus spp. in removing various heavy metals ions from contaminated environments."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8402239/

offtrail3• 2 years ago

I disagree with basically all of that.

He say mycoremediation barely works and then literally describes mycoremediation. "so maybe just mix in some substrate, turn the soil and let nature do the rest"

Regarding mycofiltration, doesn't really work and even if it did, wouldn't take long for the mycelium to go anarobic and die.

Then a sentence later.

I have no idea if this works.

You know why that is? Because he hasn't done it.

medicinal mushrooms shouldn't be sold as medicine until they are proven to work

They do work. Very well. 1000s of years of human history and 1000s of clinical trials have proven it. I had never heard of Alen Rockefeller before now, but with that one statement makes me think he's either retarded or disingenuous in his opinion.

Pine_Mushroom3• 2 years ago

Alan is quite well known and respected in the field. Fair enough pointing out he has no experience with mycoremediation, but I still find his opinion worth considering.

In Cleveland, mushrooms digest entire houses

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