Mushroom and Technology
We know mushroom or fungi are source of food and medicine but do you know that there 10 times more fungi than plants? Fungi are present in every aspect of our lives, the air we breath has fungi on it, the earth we step on is composed of kilometers of fungi thread, we can't see it but believe me it's there. The advent of powerful microscopes that we clearly able to understand their metabolism and finally get a sense of how huge the realm of fungi really is. Fungi and mushrooms are integral to the wellbeing of forest and field ecosystems, to the recycling of nutrients, and to the sequestration of carbon. They are responsible for countless duties in nature, and the molecules they have evolved to fulfil those duties represent a range of opportunities that may help us solve some of the world’s most pressing problems like Agriculture, Mental Health and Diseases, Housing (Earth and Space), Pollution and Computers.
A. Agriculture - the abnormal changes in our weather patterns due to climate change has wreck havoc to the agricultural system in the world, when a plant is exposed to drought it suffers a an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants happens to counter the effects of that stress the endophytic fungi living between the cells of the plants emit an arsenal of compounds that calm oxidative stress in plants, and also participate in the chemistry that makes plants use water efficiently this helps plants in the drought stricken areas, but also those suffering from extreme heat or salt exposure.
B. Mental Health and Diseases - Humans has been using mushroom to remedy whatever ailments they are suffering for centuries. With the advances made in the medicine research they are aiming their microscopes to the old world medicine, mushroom. Researchers worldwide began an intense investigation into the possibilities of psilocybin and LSD to help people with a range of mental disorders and found that when combined with therapy, psilocybin may be effective at easing a host of disorders, including OCD, PTSD, depression, and anxiety due to life-threatening illness. There are also ongoing studies to investigate its effect on anorexia nervosa and Alzheimer’s. They also think Psilocybin work by suppressing certain neural pathways in the brain and engaging others, and disrupts rigid patterns of thought, as in the PTSD patient who replays traumatic experiences over and over. Psilocybin seems to lead to the rapid onset of antidepressant and anti-addictive effects that are persistent over time.
C. Housing (Earth and Space) - Fungi and mushroom have enormous potential for product design and building components because they are environmentally sustainable material you can grow mycelium into into any shape or size you want, then bake it like a pot, the result is a strong, light material that has structural integrity, but as soft or rigid as you like. Fungi have also been grown into soft foam alternatives, bricks, particleboard, electrical circuit boards, fire-resistant insulation, and household objects like vases, chairs, lampshades, even slippers. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley is exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi to become our future homes in the stars they are prototyping technologies that could “grow” habitats on the Moon, Mars and beyond. Harnessing mycelia to grow the habitats humans will need once they get to the Moon or Mars when they get there. The project envisions a future where human explorers can bring a compact habitat built out of a lightweight material with dormant fungi that will last on long journeys to places like Mars. Upon arrival, by unfolding that basic structure and simply adding water, the fungi will be able to grow around that framework into a fully functional human habitat .
D. Pollution - Fungi and mushroom survive by spreading their long, thin hyphae to eat they do it by seep out digestive enzymes, which break down the bonds that hold together their food, allowing them to absorb tasty molecules, like carbon, phosphorous, nitrogen and water. The power to break down complex molecules into simpler ones is the key to mycoremediation, the application of fungi in order to clean polluted sites. This process is important in braking down polyaromatic hydrocarbons ( petroleum byproducts, sewage sludge and ash) to an array of nitroaromatic compounds like explosives, dyes, herbicides and insecticides, to ashtrays made of fungi that digest cigarette butts. This will be important in cleaning up oil spill, areas polluted by mining waste and other industrial waste, carbon based products is food for fungi. Researchers have identified a soil fungus that can break down polyurethane (plastic) in a matter of weeks, and other species have been discovered with similar capabilities.
E. Computers - Researchers at Unconventional Computing Laboratory at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK has been working since 2001 on a fungi powered computer processor, sticking electrodes into a foam-like substance in a massive motherboard with tiny oyster mushrooms growing on top of it. The researcher's believed that coming century computers will be made of chemical or living systems, or wetware, that are going to work in harmony with hardware and software. Computers today see problems as binaries: the ones and zeros that represent the traditional approach these devices use, quantum computers (which could better simulate molecules) and living brain cell-based chips (which could better mimic neural networks), because they can represent and process information in different ways, utilizing a series of complex, multi-dimensional functions, and provide more precise calculations for certain problems, However, most dynamics in the real world cannot always be captured through that system. Mushrooms stay connected with the environment and the organisms using a kind of “internet” communication. Scientist try deciphering the language fungi use to send signals through this biological network, so that they might not only get insights about the state of underground ecosystems but d also tap into them to improve our own information systems.
Fungal computers, mycelium—the branching, web-like root structure of the fungus—acts as conductors as well as the electronic components of a computer. They can receive and send electric signals, as well as retain memory. Mushroom computers could offer some benefits over conventional computers. Although they can’t ever match the speeds of today’s modern machines, they could be more fault tolerant (they can self-regenerate, reconfigurable (they naturally grow and evolve), and consume very little energy. But right now this is all in the research stage, we will not see Apple, Dell, Azuz or HP selling Fungi powered computers or laptops in the foreseeable future.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/fungus-technology
https://www.popsci.com/technology/unconventional-computing-lab-mushroom/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/could-future-homes-on-the-moon-and-mars-be-made-of-fungi/
https://youtu.be/dRcNt1ds_sA?si=qhqJSncJZvGQ6KsM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiFhw7JrDH0
