The claim in the article that saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer's yeast) naturally produced the deep blue color in the butterfly example is not actually true, although it's a gorgeous effect.
These are genetically engineered variants of brewer's yeast designed to produce pigments.
I wonder if there is a health hazard wearing this due to breathing in spores or toxins released into the air? Or perhaps there is a risk that the wearer will absorb harmful chemicals secreted by the mycelium via contact with the wearer's skin? Very interesting none the less. I have imagined humans making living clothes for a long time, so it is nice to see that idea materialize.
I've done cultures on agar agar and mycelium definitely does have a distinctive smell. To me it's reminiscent to the damp smell of a concrete basement, though less stale and unpleasant.
I'm not sure it's any more objectively gross than normal textile materials. Imagine you lived in a hairless, furless world where nothing like wool was a thing, and then suddenly we discovered a weird fluffy mammal that extruded long fibers out of its flesh; the people of that world might call that gross, we'd just call it ordinary.
I guess they're just trying to get the networks to interlace, not to reconstitute into a single organism and be capable of nutrient exchange, so I don't think it matters if they're identical or not.
The claim in the article that saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer's yeast) naturally produced the deep blue color in the butterfly example is not actually true, although it's a gorgeous effect.
These are genetically engineered variants of brewer's yeast designed to produce pigments.
Wow you weren’t kidding that’s a beautiful color
You can buy this color for 3€/meter at any weekend fabric market.
I wonder if there is a health hazard wearing this due to breathing in spores or toxins released into the air? Or perhaps there is a risk that the wearer will absorb harmful chemicals secreted by the mycelium via contact with the wearer's skin? Very interesting none the less. I have imagined humans making living clothes for a long time, so it is nice to see that idea materialize.
It seems telling that none of the photos show anyone wearing it.
This would turn into a mould infested nightmare
I would buy one, but I don’t think I have mushroom in my wardrobe for it.
How does it smell though?
Most people associate mushrooms and fungi with the smell of their substrate; they commonly don't have a strong smell themselves
I doubt it has a smell stronger than the wearer
edit: this is a bad take, upon further research
Chanterelles smell great. I would wear something that smelled like that.
Pine mushrooms, not so much.
I've done cultures on agar agar and mycelium definitely does have a distinctive smell. To me it's reminiscent to the damp smell of a concrete basement, though less stale and unpleasant.
Is there a possibility of the organisms escaping the material and infesting the environment? That's what I would worry about with mycelium.
Could they make a house out of this?
Is there an adjective for something that's nifty but also gross?
Blursed!
I'm not sure it's any more objectively gross than normal textile materials. Imagine you lived in a hairless, furless world where nothing like wool was a thing, and then suddenly we discovered a weird fluffy mammal that extruded long fibers out of its flesh; the people of that world might call that gross, we'd just call it ordinary.
> nutrient solution is applied over a hole, along with a small patch of fresh fungus
So, not repair itself.
To be fair it only claimed "near self-repairing".
One could think of it as mostly self-repairing with some outside encouragement.
The headline is more ambitious, that's probably what they meant
Nope. "Dress made of living mycelium can renew and repair itself".
Does the fresh fungus need to be genetically identical? I read something about mycelial nuclei in high school and it was weird.
I guess they're just trying to get the networks to interlace, not to reconstitute into a single organism and be capable of nutrient exchange, so I don't think it matters if they're identical or not.