Polyurethane is used in a wide variety of products ranging from insulation, auto parts, plastic ware, packaging, adhesives and sealants, and many others. As a result, a large quantity of this useful and important plastic finds its way into waste streams every year.
The problem is, polyurethane is resistant to degradation and has a reputation as [...]
Tags: bioremediation, degradation of plastics, fungal composting, polurethane
News reports out of Zimbabwe state that six people have recently died there from eating poisonous wild mushrooms. The article Toxic Mushrooms Kill Six shows a picture of Galerina autumnalis, but the article does not state which mushrooms are responsible for the tragic fatalities, which included a three year-old girl.
Six people have died in the [...]
Tags: Africa, mushroom poisoning, Zimbabwe
University of Illinois Offers Morel Hunting Workshop
The University of Illinois extension service will offer a morel mushroom hunting workshop on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 from 1-2:30 PM. According to Morel mushroom hunting workshop at the U of I Extension:
University of Illinois Extension Henderson-Mercer-Warren unit will offer a workshop on morel mushroom hunting at the Warren [...]
Tags: beer, curry, morel hunting, morel hunting grounds, morel mushrooms, morels
Table lamps that look like mushrooms are nothing new. Several versions of such lamps are available, and they are usually intended as small table lamps or accent pieces.
However, a post at Geeky Gadgets caught my interest in a floor version of a mushroom lamp from Australian designer Simon Duff. Duff is known for creating stylish [...]
Tags: Australia, mushroom floor lamp, mushroom lamp, Simon Duff
The Los Angeles Mycological Society (LAMS) Wild Mushroom Fair is scheduled for February 14, 2010 at the L.A. County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. The LA Times (which is quite good at giving coverage to mushroom-related stories and events) says:
Events include: a cooking demonstration; mushroom growing demonstrations; wild mushroom displays; books, collectibles and art; children’s activities; [...]
Tags: LAMS, Stamets, Wild Mushroom Fair
No, being a mycophilelatist is not an immoral activity. It’s a term describing one who collects mushroom topical stamps.
There are a small number of people in the stamp collecting world who specialize in mushroom topicals. Topicals are stamps that have specific pictures on them or are themed on a certain “topic” like trains, bugs, war, [...]
Tags: catalog, mycophilelaty, stamps
In what looks like a potential rival to EcoCradle, Mycotectural Alpha is a construction material made of dense mycelium. Time magazine mentions it in the article Industrial-Strength Fungus by Adam Fischer:
Mycelium doesn’t taste very good, but once it’s dried, it has some remarkable properties. It’s nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps [...]
Tags: art, Ecocradle, Far West Fungi, Mycotectural Alpha, Philip Ross, structures
A previous post (Red Rice Yeast–The Good and the Bad) discussed the pros and cons of red yeast rice as a substitute for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. Evidence is good that it does in fact lower cholesterol, perhaps even dangerously so if consumed unwisely.
Now a new research study has shown that red yeast rice was as [...]
Tags: cholesterol, red yeast rice, statins
In cooperation with Google, Popular Science magazine has placed all the content they have ever produced online and free for the browsing. According to the website:
We’ve partnered with Google to offer our entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. [...]
Tags: history, Popular Science
Down New Zealand way, the alarm has been sounded. Spore counts have gone through the roof (maybe “sky high” would be a better way to put it) out in the pastures and this spells trouble for those lumbering denizens of the fields–cows.
According to Fungus threat to dairy cows soars, by Richard Woodd:
The facial eczema threat [...]
Tags: Australia, cows, facial eczema, New Zealand, Pithomyces chartarum, sproridesmin
Nail fungus (onychomycosis) affects more than 10 percent of the population in the U.S. Although a variety of treatments exist, including home remedies (which seldom work), topical and oral pharmaceuticals, and even lasers, the ultimate cure has yet to be found.
People don’t like having nail fungus. Although most insurance plans do not cover treatment (except [...]
Tags: AN2690, Anacor, antifungal, Merck, nail fungus, onchyomycosis
Shocking news for the world of fungal science. The Hyphal Tip broke the news a little while ago that one of the people killed at the shooting on the Huntsville campus of the University of Alabama yesterday was Dr. Gopi Podila. Dr. Podila was one of three professors shot by an assailant who was angry [...]
Tags: fungal biologist killed, Gopi Padila, school shooting, University of Alabama
A while back I posted a piece on spalted wood, which is favored by woodworkers because of its interesting coloration and patterns. Finewoodworking.com recently posted an article, Spalt Your Own Lumber: Just Say No To Brown Rot!, discussing how brown rot fungi can ruin attempts at producing spalted wood.
I’ve spent a lot of time on [...]
Tags: brown rot, spalted wood, woodworking
A Dr. Marvin Hausman, urologist, transplant surgeon and founder of Total Nutraceutical Solutions, Inc. (TNS) is touting a special mushroom formulation to treat a range of maladies including Alzheimer’s. It apparently works in fruit flies.
According to Wisdom in mushrooms, Local doctor believes he may have found the cure to Alzheimer’s disease by Jason Horton:
Recently, through [...]
Tags: Agaricus blazei, Agaricus subrufescens, medicinal mushrooms, Total Nutraceutical Solutions, UV radiation, vitamin D
Wanna’ trade a Magic Golden Cantharellus for a Purple Entomophagous Bauvaria?
The Phylomon project, as I understand it, is an open source educational card game effort to produce something along the lines of Pokemon cards.
It might stretch the bounds of fair use, but I hope they won’t mind since I enthusiastically want to support and publicize [...]
Good on the man who wakes up one morning and says to himself, “You know, poaching sucks. I think I’ll try mushroom farming.” Apparently that is just what some poachers are saying in Thailand these days (er, sort of, maybe?)
This according to an AFP article (and I don’t know exactly what AFP is, although the [...]
Tags: mushroom growing, oyster mushroom, poachers, sustainable agriculture, Thailand
Renowned mushroom photographer Taylor Lockwood is heading for Brazil soon on a mycological photo expedition. I learned this after I heard back from Taylor after I had sent him a message suggestion he consider contributing some fungal imagery to the Phylomon project (recently renamed “Phylo”). He showed some interest in that project stating, “That’s a [...]
Tags: Amanita rubescens, Brazil, Leccinum scabrosum, photography, Phylomon, Taylor Lockwood
A fungus has been deemed interesting and scary enough to grace the pages of Wired magazine along side Google’s search algorithm, the future of money, and a retrospective of the dotcom boom and bust. Way to go stem rust Ug99! Er…, make that “Oh drat. Starvation. That’s bad.”
Thanks to a tweet from the Kamoun Lab [...]
Tags: phytopathology, Puccinia gramminis, stem rust, Ug99, wheat rust, Wired
Word has been floating around the mycological community for awhile now about the discovery of mushrooms developing submerged in a fresh water stream in Oregon. Now the research on these mushrooms has come to full light with the publication of a paper in Mycologia:
Jonathan L. Frank, Robert A. Coffan and Darlene Southworth, (2010), Aquatic gilled [...]
Tags: aquatic mushrooms, Oregon, Psathyrella aquatica, Rogue River
Jackson Pollock dripped paint on canvas. Picasso, Braque, Duchamp and the other cubists broke the world into little rectangular planes. Andy Warhol set up a few soup cans. Niall Hamilton has his own style of art. A Petri dish of agar is his canvas, spores are his paint, and a sterile loop is his brush.
I [...]
Tags: art, fungal art, microbial art, Nial Hamilton
A number of articles found on the web recently (actually they are all basically the same one) have told of a fairly serious case of book damage done by fungus in Luxembourg. Sometime in 2009, the conditions in the basement of the National Library of Luxembourg became quite humid, and before anyone knew it, a [...]
Now this is weird. As the lady explains at the beginning of her story, she gets an email from Africa. Usually those are from “missionaries” looking for a house sitter while they are away, or “bankers” who need a place to stash some money, etc. Uh huh. Not this time.
Nancy Ancrum of the Miami Herald [...]
Tags: Ghana, mushroom farming, oyster mushrooms
When a dance company is named after a dung fungus, you know they are good. Pilobolus has been on stage for a long time now; since 1971 in fact. They must really be comfortable with each other to get in those poses.
The outfit will be performing two shows on February 12 and 13 at the [...]
Tags: art, dance, Pilobolus, University of Minnesota
The Center for Biological Diversity published a press release today outlining a proposal to close all caves to protect bats from a perceived impending collapse of bat populations brought on by the fungal disease, bat white nose syndrome (WNS).
Emergency Petitions Filed to Close Caves and Save Bats From Extinction
The Center for Biological Diversity [...]
Tags: bats, caves, Center for Biological Diversity, WNS
