Mushrooms

Paying respect to the dead can be an eco-unfriendly matter, whether opting for a wooden coffin or cremation. Instead, Loop Biotech has found a way to save forests and reduce CO2 emissions with the Loop Living Cocoon, a mushroom-based casket.

Composting toilets are a great idea, but no one likes to think of the waste sitting there and fermenting. A new eco-friendly toilet gets around that problem by using mushrooms to facilitate the composting process, plus it uses no water to do the job.

The white button mushroom has cancer-fighting abilities, according to the results of a human clinical trial on the use of food as medicine. Not only does it slow tumor growth, but it also allows cancer-fighting immune cells to do their job effectively.

Citizen scientists have been key to the discovery of two new species of hallucinogenic fungi, joining the ranks of 140 known types of these psychoactive mushrooms. One even has longstanding roots in traditional healing medicine in mountainous Lesotho.

Laws are opening up to support the use of medicinal psilocybin – and that requires new technology to ensure accurate, consistent dosing. Researchers have now developed a fast and reliable method of determining the potency of magic mushrooms.

A healthy frog has been spotted with a mushroom growing out its side, the first time such a growth on live animal tissue has been seen. Not surprisingly, it stunned scientists (and had us wondering if this is how a real-life The Last of Us begins).

When it comes to cleaning up marine oil spills, it's best if you can use a material that separates the oil from the seawater. Scientists have created a new organic membrane which does exactly that, and it's derived from oyster mushrooms.

Scientists have identified a potential antidote to the poisonous mushroom, the death cap. Using CRISPR, a team found that a chemical already approved by the FDA can neutralize the toxin and save lives in mouse tests – but there are a few catches.

Whether they’re hacking the brains of bugs or mining gold, fungi are craftier than we give them credit for. Now researchers in Japan have studied how forest mushrooms communicate with each other, and found that they're mostly chatty when it rains.

Stunning nature, craft breweries, marionberries and Voodoo Doughnuts are some of the things the Pacific Northwest state is famous for, but with new licenses rolling out, it'll soon be known as the unofficial home of the burgeoning psilocybin industry.

Among other things, mushrooms have been put forth as eco-friendly alternatives to leather and expanded foam packaging. According to a new study, they might also find use in biodegradable electronic devices.

Scientists continue to search for increasingly powerful drugs to take on cancer cells and inhibit tumor growth, and nature continues to provide them with rich source of inspiration, with the latest example coming from white button mushrooms.