When I read the headline I thought this was spicy radioactive wood but this is way cooler.
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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I was hoping it to be extra spicy, but if it's glowing that hard you don't want to be anywhwere near it in that case.
Looks more like it's just something you'd use as an indicator light. Like the legs of a table in the middle of the night. There doesn't seem to be any actual radiance to it.
The researchers found that the fungus and wood need to be incubated together for three months in a very moist environment. During this time the balsa wood absorbs up to eight times its weight in water, and the glow begins only when it’s exposed to oxygen.
The most effective combo turned out to be ringless honey fungus (Desarmillaria tabescens) and balsa wood, which was able to fluoresce for up to 10 days in wavelengths of 560 nanometers
Three months of production for 10 days of glow?
the team found that the fungus breaks down the lignin in the wood
The ultimate goal, they say in the paper, would be to provide energy-saving lighting in homes or public spaces.
This seems like a pipe dream considering that part of the wood is consumed during use, meaning that the entire lighting unit needs to be replaced when it dies.
Let's say they get the ratio up to 1:1 (a month of glow for a month of production - probably a stretch but let's be generous). An LED could provide more light for years of operation, and I seriously doubt that the transportation of bricks of waterlogged wood every month would be a good energy tradeoff for the electricity needed to run the LED.
but its wood
I agree with the criticism that this is probably not going to be much use in established public parks, where lights of the indicator variety would likely be much better solved by fixed-installation solar led bulbs.
But!
Events!
Imagine a company settling down to produce this wood. Large batches, and hopefully some alternative wood species too, as balsa wood is not super available in Europe, at least not cheaply.
And then various pop-up events all over the place, maybe pagan in nature, maybe burning-man stuff, maybe naturey rock concerts or techno meetups. And then these fairy-style illuminated paths to show you the way from one place to another as you walk between densely-packed tents or through at dark forest needing to get from a to be and hopefully not tripping over branches on the way.
Totally doable. Aforementioned company grows the glowy mycelium, uses existing technology to shred finished trunks to wooden shrapnel, and delivers this in big bags; eventmakers strew the stuff whereever people are supposed to walk, and, done.
Not much work or effort. No need to clean up the forest afterwards because the stuff is wood and -very- biodegradable in a forest.
So... if your conclusion is that the only functional life this will ever see is as a gimmick for publicity stunts and greenwashing... yeah, I agree with that.
The transportation cost for waterlogged wood (in terms of energy used and pollution generated) will outweigh any environmental benefits, even completely disregarding the production cost, all for the equivalent of a chemlight. A portable generator running some LEDs would probably be more environmentally friendly, even if it burns petroleum, because you're probably reusing that equipment many times, and you could get useful amount of light out of it, which could also be dimmed and turned on and off as needed.
Chipping the wood will cause it to dry out faster, so the fungus will die off faster and the luminescence will stop sooner - might not be important if you're just going for a few hours of lighting effect. Exposing more surface area might actually give you stronger glow for a bit, so maybe?
Also, can the fungus survive and spread outside of the wood? If you left this on the ground to biodegrade would you be introducing an invasive species to wherever?
Pretty much my conclusion is that, yes, although not necessarily greenwashing, it can be what it is; a practical way to light paths in the wood without needing to construct stuff nor pick up the litter.
This is huge actually. Don't underestimate the power of making fairy paths. I'm at Bornhack right now and I think I tripped over tent strings once per second day. I have a headlamp but the batteries ran out. The people marked out important paths like 'fire trucks go here' and 'this way from noisy camp to the bar' but us poor hammock-dwellers are left to our own devices, in the dark.
Also, can the fungus survive and spread outside of the wood? If you left this on the ground to biodegrade would you be introducing an invasive species to wherever?
As long as it's in an environment/territory where the fungus is occuring naturally, this shouldn't be an issue.
The chips will be pre-seeded in whatever way, so in those the fungus will outcompete others due to having a monopoly of sorts.
Outside the chips, it's every fungus for themselves.
Yes, the bioluminescent one will have a stockpile of food (chips) to build from, but that only lasts so long.
All the other fungi in that place, whereever it may be, will have been around for a long time for a reason, and won't be easily invaded by upstart wannabes.
(or well since fungi tend to spread everywhere regardless they probably already have genetically compatible neighbours anyway)