<
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-scientists-harness-the-magic-of-mushrooms-to-clean-up-polluted-landscapes-180986561/>
"Ever since the
HBO series “The Last of Us” hit screens in 2023, people have
grilled Danielle Stevenson with their fears over a mushroom-induced dystopia.
On the show, a fungus mutates and sparks a global zombie apocalypse, and as a
scientist who studies fungi and how they can actually help society, Stevenson
is ready to assuage their concerns.
“A common question in the public space is, ‘But if you use fungi to eat
pollution, will they eat our house and our building and our faces and the whole
world?’” Stevenson says.
“They will not,” she often answers. “They’re a nature-based approach to
handling our waste.”
Stevenson’s work focuses on mycoremediation, a technique that uses fungi to
rehabilitate polluted land. Mycoremediation harnesses fungi’s natural abilities
to collect contaminants scattered in soil and either concentrate them so that
they can be removed or break them down into materials that aren’t harmful.
The fungal kingdom is host to an estimated 2.2 million to 3.8 million species,
ranging from single-celled yeasts to the largest organism in the world, a
sprawling member of the honey mushroom genus that occupies more than 2,000
acres of soil in eastern Oregon. Once considered more similar to plants than
animals, fungi can’t create their own food through photosynthesis; instead,
most of them obtain nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter. To do so,
fungal cells secrete enzymes that break insoluble carbohydrates down into
simpler sugars that those cells can absorb and store. That ability to decompose
and metabolize nutrients makes them invaluable contributors to ecosystems
around the world. Fungi transform materials that plants and animals otherwise
wouldn’t be able to use to their benefit.
Fungi can convert complex toxins such as petrochemicals and pesticides into
simpler molecules that they and other organisms can repurpose. They also absorb
and concentrate heavy metals like lead and cadmium, which remain intact in
their biomass and can be relocated safely when the fungi are harvested. Workers
have an easier time picking mushrooms that accumulate lead and disposing of
them at a landfill, for example, than excavating and relocating tons of
lead-riddled soil.
“The Last of Us”—and the video game franchise it’s based on—imagine scenarios
where fungi take over the world. The reality, as Stevenson is eager to discuss
as a consultant and educator, is that they can play a significant role in our
environments—and they are powerful potential partners in human-led efforts to
restore polluted spaces. “We can transform contaminated sites into parks, green
spaces and affordable housing,” she says. “There’s just so much potential for
this type of approach to work on a lot of different problems at the same
time.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
