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Dress made of living mycelium can renew and repair itself

38 points · 23 comments · speckx

  1. chrisjj · · focus · HN ↗
    > nutrient solution is applied over a hole, along with a small patch of fresh fungus

    So, not repair itself.

    1. dustfinger · · focus · HN ↗
      To be fair it only claimed "near self-repairing".
      1. soiltype · · focus · HN ↗
        The headline is more ambitious, that's probably what they meant
      2. cestith · · focus · HN ↗
        One could think of it as mostly self-repairing with some outside encouragement.
      3. chrisjj · · focus · HN ↗
        Nope. "Dress made of living mycelium can renew and repair itself".
    2. andai · · focus · HN ↗
      Does the fresh fungus need to be genetically identical? I read something about mycelial nuclei in high school and it was weird.
      1. fluoridation · · focus · HN ↗
        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.
  2. josefritzishere · · focus · HN ↗
    Is there an adjective for something that's nifty but also gross?
    1. kibwen · · focus · HN ↗
      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.
    2. sdellis · · focus · HN ↗
      Blursed!
  3. juancn · · focus · HN ↗
    How does it smell though?
    1. ComputerPerson · · focus · HN ↗
      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

      1. _whiteCaps_ · · focus · HN ↗
        Chanterelles smell great. I would wear something that smelled like that.

        Pine mushrooms, not so much.

      2. fluoridation · · focus · HN ↗
        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.
  4. AlanYx · · focus · HN ↗
    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.

    1. Forgeties79 · · focus · HN ↗
      Wow you weren’t kidding that’s a beautiful color
      1. inigyou · · focus · HN ↗
        You can buy this color for 3€/meter at any weekend fabric market.
  5. dustfinger · · focus · HN ↗
    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.
    1. svachalek · · focus · HN ↗
      It seems telling that none of the photos show anyone wearing it.
  6. andai · · focus · HN ↗
    Could they make a house out of this?
    1. bastawhiz · · focus · HN ↗
      It doesn't seem to have the rigidity to be structurally sound for construction.
  7. funkygibbon · · focus · HN ↗
    I would buy one, but I don’t think I have mushroom in my wardrobe for it.
  8. LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
    Is there a possibility of the organisms escaping the material and infesting the environment? That's what I would worry about with mycelium.
  9. sajithdilshan · · focus · HN ↗
    This would turn into a mould infested nightmare
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