Polyurethane is useful, but presents a disposal and recycling problem (Jennifer Dickert)

The problem is, polyurethane is resistant to degradation and has a reputation as being “non-biodegradable.” However, experiments done by researchers at the University of Manchester suggest that the fungi Nectria haematococca, Penicillium viridicatum and Penicillium ochrochloron, which had previously been isolated on polyurethane, might someday be able to breakdown polyurethane in a “plastic composting’ process.

According to the article, Fungi can digest polyurethanes, at The Chemical Engineer Today:

Two techniques, biostimulation and bioaugmentation, were used. Biostimulation essentially involved ‘feeding’ organisms already present in the soil, either with Impranil, a polyurethane dispersion agent which begins the initial break down of the polymer, or with yeast extract. This technique resulted in a 62% increase in degradation compared to untreated soil.

Biodegradation of plastics is a tough problem, and the goal of being able to compost plastics instead of burying them in landfills has long been a goal of chemical and sanitation engineers. Leave it to the mighty fungi to provide a possible solution.

The research was published as Effect of Biostimulation and Bioaugmentation on Degradation of Polyurethane Buried in Soil, Cosgrove et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2010; 76: 810-819.

More on the Topic of Fungal Biodegradation of Polymers:

Fungi used to compost plastics

Fungal communities associated with degradation of polyester polyurethane in soil

Fungi are the predominant micro-organisms responsible for degradation of soil-buried polyester polyurethane over a range of soil water holding capacities

Cover of an early issue of Popular Science

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. And today we’re excited to announce you can browse the full archive right here on PopSci.com.

This looks to be a great resource for historical as well as practical reasons. One of the comments at the site makes a good point:

03/07/10 at 3:27 pm

I love this! The articles about how to build things like tube radios and chemistry experiments and schematics on how things work. This is the example of how a magazine should be.

No doubt!

I wonder what kinds of interesting information on fungi shows up there? Better check it out. A search for “mushroom” returns 17 results, ranging in date from 1875 to 2000. There are articles about mushrooms books, fungal arts and crafts, mushroom growing–all sorts of things.  Take for example this gem, from the July 1889 issue, Fungi by T. H. McBride, which begins:

The fungi as a class may hardly be called popular. For various reasons they are, so to speak, under a cloud. They are little known, and so in lieu of better information, the legend “poison” seems to run for all the finer and more showy species. If not held absolutely poisonous, most are at least considered useless and are nameless.

It’s a wonderful and fun read.

There is plenty more to peruse. A search for “fungi” also returns 20 results. How about “mycology”? 14. Fungus? 20 again. That’s weird. I’m guessing that the results are limited to 20 per search. Well, the site does say that improvements are in the works. It really isn’t very convenient for scrolling through, but it’s very interesting and entertaining none-the-less.

I asked him about that planned trip and he was able to sy this:  “Yes. I’ll be going to Paraná to work with André de Meijer on a mushroom book of the Atlantic rainforest. After that I will head north to Natal (in the northeast below the mouth of the Amazon) to look for stinkhorns in the dunes near the ocean.”

And that’s not all. “Other factors permitting, I will go to the Amazon after that,” he added.

It certainly will be interesting to see what amazing photographs of strange and beautiful fungi Taylor comes up with on this trip. Taylor, who also operates the website FungiPhoto.com, is currently booking engagements for his Fall 2010 tour.

A group of Amanita mushrooms (Taylor Lockwood)

He sent me a couple of photos he took last year while on a U.S. tour and this seems like a good time to show them off. This first one is of a group of Amanita mushrooms from “rainy MA.” Taylor added, “For those who don’t know, this is unusual in that Amanitas rarely group like this.”

Leccinum scabrosum (Taylor Lockwood)

He identified the next one as “Leccinum scabrosum. Central Connecticut.”

Thanks Taylor!

Six people have died in the last week after eating poisonous mushrooms in Beatrice, a small town 55km south-west of Harare, police said.

Four members of the same family, including a three-year-old girl, were among the dead, Mashonaland East police spokeswoman Assistant Inspector Thando Madhoyo said.

According to an earlier article on the same incident, Poisonous Mushroom Kills Two, a mother picked the mushrooms near her home and fed them to her family.

The event has spurred the government of Zimbabwe to publish Wild Mushroom Fatalities Avoidable:

WILD mushrooms account for a large number of food poisoning fatalities the world over, a development related to the morphology of fungi that makes it almost impossible to distinguish between edible and toxic species.

This week, we carried a tragic story of six people drawn from two families who died after eating wild mushrooms picked from a bushy area close to their homesteads at Keryboom and Albion farms in Beatrice.

Two parents, whose only wish was to feed and sustain their families, did not know that they were, in effect, giving them their last meal.

Zimbabwe is in south-central Africa (Wiki Commons)

]]> http://mycorant.com/deaths-from-mushrooms-in-zimbabwe/feed/ 0 http://mycorant.com/cows-threatened-by-fungi-down-under/ http://mycorant.com/cows-threatened-by-fungi-down-under/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:19:43 +0000 Philip http://mycorant.com/?p=1734 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 to dairy herds has soared to critical levels in parts of Taranaki this week in perfect growing conditions.

Facial eczema is a disease which causes lowered production and sometimes death from liver damage. Fungal spores produced by the fungus Pithomyces chartarum growing on pasture produce a toxin which when ingested by cattle damage the liver and bile ducts.

The damaged liver cannot rid the body of wastes and a breakdown product of chlorophyll builds up in the body causing sensitivity to sunlight, which in turn causes inflammation of the skin. Exposed unpigmented or thin skin thickens and peels.

Pithomyces spores (courtesy of Bryce Kendrick and Mycolog)

That is a strange chain of events linking a fungus, the environment, and cow faces. Pithomyces is a genus of dematiaceous conidial fungi. The toxin in question is called sporidesmin.

In not too far away (from New Zealand) New South Wales, a fungus is also causing worry. It apparently isn’t the same one that causes the facial eczema, since the article Grass fungus can kill cattle, from the Tweed Daily News states:

“The fungus produces a toxin that irritates the third stomach, causing it to fail to perform its normal job of absorbing fluid,” he <a veterinarian> said.

“This causes a build-up of water in the main stomach or rumen, giving the cattle a bloated appearance. The weight of this fluid can be too much for the heart and lungs to bear.”

Strangely, this ailment is called “Kikuyu poisoning,” named after the grass the cows eat, even through the grass is actually good fodder, and it is only after a wet spell that the fungus grows on the grass causing it to become toxic.