Clothes made from living fungi can clean and repair themselves

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2581227-clothes-made-from-living-fungi-can-clean-and-repair-themselves/

A parasitic fungus that grows on caterpillars has been turned into a dress designed to be able to repair itself if damaged.

37 points · 14 comments · view on lemmy.world

14 Comments

reksas@sopuli.xyz · 19 pts · 34d (1 reply)

I'm sure absolutely nothing would go wrong with this, like fungus adapting to attach to human hosts too.

But very interesting idea

SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org · 4 pts · 33d

Why not? No need to dress-undress everyday anymore.

NaibofTabr@infosec.pub · 9 pts · 34d (1 reply)

Under dry conditions, most biological activity is greatly reduced, and the cells may remain inactive or dormant, says Li.

But under humid conditions with nutrients present, some cells can become active again. This latent biological capacity is what enables functions such as regrowth and repair, and also means that the material is readily biodegradable, showing near-complete visible degradation in soil after just over 40 days.

Seems like it would need some sort of underlayer to separate it from sweat.

unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 34d

Oh did you say fungal undergarments? I do grow my own, but not to share.

Lycist@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 34d

Super cool idea, not sure I'd be willing to wear fungal clothing, but its neat.

Eternal192@anarchist.nexus · 5 pts · 34d

The last of us...

swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 33d (1 reply)

I'd be worried about injuring the fungus by accident.

Wren@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 33d

It'll just take a nibble and fix itself.

AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 33d

This is really amazing as a first prototype. Probably you'd want to improve on this by genetic engineering. Like repairability and self cleaning and ideally eating skin oils or cells to stay alive.

A proper self cleaning biomaterial that ingests dust and transports ash it into some "garbage pocket" would be awesome. This could also be great for bedsheets, chair textiles, mattresses and maybe even wallpaper or carpet.

Quexotic@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 33d

How could this possibly go wrong?

YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 33d (3 replies)

Really sad to see the harm done by the last of us. You are vastly different from a caterpillar, and even then, this thing is pretty picky about the type of caterpillar it affects.

I also wonder how they made it out of living mycelium, but the article is data blocked. But I would totally be first in line for this if it wasn't thousands of dollars.

Wren@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 33d (2 replies)

Weird, I thought maybe newscientist changed their tune on paywalls since this one wasn't blocked for me. Here's an alt link for you:

https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2581227-clothes-made-from-living-fungi-can-clean-and-repair-themselves/

YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 33d (1 reply)

Mushroom leather! Very cool!

The famous mycobiologist (self sic) Paul Stamets has a hat he wears made from an arboreal species that I assume is less flexible. I'm excited to see if this gets picked up by any manufacturer.

Wren@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 33d

It would be fantastic if it does, or if there were a way to grow your own fashion at home. I can't imagine it being much different from mushroom kits.