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Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic? Petroleum-eating mushrooms. Take a Petri dish containing crude petroleum and it will release a strong odor distinctive of the toxins that make up the fossil fuel. Sprinkle mushroom spores over the Petri dish and let it sit for two weeks in an incubator, and surprise, the petroleum and its smell will disappear. "The mushrooms consumed the petroleum! " says Mohamed Hijri, a professor of biological sciences and researcher at the University of Montreal's Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (IRBV). Hijri co-directs a project with B. Franz Lang promoting nature as the number one ally in the fight against contamination. The recipe is simple. Thanks to the collaboration of an oil company from the Montreal area, the researchers had access to a microbiological paradise: an area where practically nothing can grow and where no one ventures without protective gear worthy of a space traveler.

Natural and artificial selection Botanist Michel Labrecque is overseeing the plant portion of the project. Volkswagen Passat Eco Fuel: Human emissions, Mushrooms. 'Mushroom Death Suit' Could Remediate Bodily Toxins With... © Mikey Siegel Even in death, we can inflict a negative environmental impact, from the release of heavy metals during the cremation of bodies, to the toxic effect of chemicals used in the embalming process.

Skipping the pollutive process of conventional burials entirely, artist Jae Rhim Lee proposes a mushroom-based, alternative burial method, which will also help to remediate the plethora of fat-soluble toxins found in dead bodies and prevent them from re-entering the soil. Her level-headed but humoristic explanation of her "Mushroom Death Suit" on TED deserves a watch: Lee, who was also a director on a project that transformed defunct FEMA trailers into mobile gardens, gives more details on this radically different burial concept which employs the humble mushroom and is also more than just a suit: There's no doubt that the way we do burials now is completely out of whack, as Lee astutely explains that "we deny death, poison the living and further harm the environment.

" Designing a mushroom death suit. Alison George, interviews editor (Image: James Duncan Davidson/TED) Artist and inventor Jae Rhim Lee has come up with an unusual way to confront our attitudes about death. At the TEDGlobal conference last week, she talked to New Scientist about the flesh-eating Infinity Mushroom she's trying to cultivate. Tell me about the Infinity Burial Project that you're working on? I am interested in cultural death denial, and why we are so distanced from our bodies, and especially how death denial leads to funeral practices that harm the environment - using formaldehyde and pink make-up and all that to make your loved one look vibrant and alive, so that you can imagine they're just sleeping rather than actually dead.

So I was thinking, what is the antidote to that? What exactly is an Infinity Mushroom? Do the mushrooms like your offcasts? What kind of mushrooms are you using? Have you got a lab to do this in? Why a mushroom? What also started it was the mycologist Paul Stamets who I studied with. Can You Really Create A Gadget That Turns Plastic Bottles Into Mushrooms? |... How long does it take for petroleum-based plastics to break down? Some say 500 years, but no one knows for sure. The scary truth is that they never completely disappear. But if you must consume plastic, you might as well put it to good use and grow some mushrooms.

Huh?! That’s the theory behind Philips’s “paternoster.” The conceptual contraption takes advantage of a remarkable feature of mycelium fungi: They can actually digest plastic. The plywood and copper and parts are made for self-assembly, and the exposed inner workings make the slow process of decomposition understandable to children. The paternoster is part of Philips’s Microbial Home, a domestic ecosystem that harnesses biological processes to break down waste and convert it into energy.