I got a call today from a fellow interested in posting about environmental issues and his interest in fungi. That reminded me of something I read recently. It took me awhile to find it however. The article was not in a recent building magazine or science magazine, but in TIME magazine titled "Industrial-Strength Fungus" .
Fungus has some edible parts, but a lot of it is underground or in decaying material in the form of fine tubes acting similar to roots in green plants. The underground system is call mycelium which does not taste good, but which when dried has interesting characteristics according to the TIME article including being non-toxic, fireproof, and mold and water-resistant as well as being more resistant to heat flow than fiberglass insulation and stronger pound for pound than concrete.
TIME mentions a couple of companies in relation to "industrial strength fungi", but the FAR WEST FUNGI site does not mention fungus as a green building product. The other business mentioned is a three-year old company that sees fungus as a whole new material ..a "woodlike equivalent to plastic" according to CEO Eben Bayer of Ecovative .
Ecovative Design has been awarded grants by the EPA, The National Science Foundation, and The US Dept of Agriculture. Products as you can find at the link above include "Ecocradle" and "Greensulate". Another link on this business leads to Popular Science article titled, "Green Styrofoam" .
I sure don't know, but the top 5000 feet or so of the old Homestake Mine at Lead, SD have been drained of the water foolishly allowed to accumulate by Republican governors of SD and that warm?, wet? environment might be ideal for South Dakota research on applications of mycelium as a construction and packing material.
So, South Dakota researchers and science students, get those grant applications in for converting straw, wood chips, bark, or whatever fungi will "digest" and produce a new "gold" from Homestake now known as Sanford Underground Laboratory .
And, if you know a truckload more about this than I do (actually a low bar to leap over), do comment or followup with better posts than this one.
--- Doug Wiken based on articles in TIME magazine and Popular Science.. read more of them yourself at links above.
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