clipped from: topcultured.com | I hate mushrooms. As a general rule, I don’t like any form of fungus, and absolutely detest the thought of ingesting it. But a pair of mechanical engineering students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with a killer technology that is making me rethink my disdain for shrooms. They’ve created Greensulate, a strong, low-cost biomaterial that replaces the expensive, non-biodegradable plastics and styrofoam used in modern packaging and wall insulation (two HUGE pollutants). |
In a lab, workers grow mycelia, the roots of mushrooms that look like gobs of white and brown fiber. In place of dirt, the roots grow in agricultural by-products, which creates a series of intertwining fibers which give the product its rigidity. Then, they simply place the mixture in a mold and let it grow for a couple of weeks until it’s super dense (1 cubic inch has 8 MILES of fibers). After that they shove them in an oven to dry and presto, you’ve got a finished product.
