5 ms·

Why Mushroom Suits Won't Work and How to Apply Cemetery Studies

53 points by c0balt 3y ago

Mistletoe 3y ago
The fact that his TEDx Talk had 0.2% of the views of her TED Talk and he actually knows what he is talking about tells you everything you need to know about TED Talks. Let me add some substance to my comment. I grew fungi for a living and my boss bought an anaerobic chamber to try and find fungi that like no oxygen or low oxygen (microaerophilic) environments. Think glove box with thick plexiglass walls and all that. Even using lake sediments etc., we really couldn’t find any that grew or liked it at all, or at least before the plates dried out over several weeks. Fungi are aerobic organisms for the most part. They love oxygen. And switching from aerobic respiration to anaerobic drastically reduces how fast something can grow. An old rule of thumb quoted is aerobic processes produce up to 38 ATP per glucose, anaerobic processes yield only 2 ATP per glucose. I assume in a coffin or buried underground, oxygen is gone very quickly from the bacterial bloom. So I don’t understand how her mushroom suit idea was ever going to work. You weren’t going to sprout a big flush of oyster mushrooms out of your body, it was just a fantasy like most TED talks. It’s science junk food.
- DueDilligence 3y ago
  [dead]
- wodenokoto 3y ago
  Yes. The original promise of of TED of presenting science and progress through well delivered talks got completely sidelined by telling make believe.
- kragen 3y ago
  apparently anaerobic fungi were discovered in the 01970s after decades of misidentification as protozoa https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609409/ which of course means that they don't include any mushroom you've ever seen
smithcoin 3y ago
Now there’s a business idea -figure out something to do with the 2-3 Billion pounds of waste chicken feathers produced annually.
- Loughla 3y ago
  Feather meal, animal feed, disposable diapers, and fuel for incinerators to heat/power plants are the existing uses that I know about from just Tyson Foods. Food production is super highly optimized; I have to imagine this exists already in most plants.
  - garrickvanburen 3y ago
    This is consistent with my understanding that everything that can be sold out of an animal processing plant already is.
    - Cthulhu_ 3y ago
      Yeah exactly, nothing from an animal is wasted, they're too expensive for that.
    - KineticLensman 3y ago
      It used to be said that they use every part of a pig except the oink.
- ArnoVW 3y ago
  My in laws run a company that use hydrolysis to extract amino acids from waste feathers. Sells them to the pet food industry
- svrtknst 3y ago
  one idea could be to produce less chickens
  - karmakurtisaani 3y ago
    But how do we stuff our faces with excessive amounts of meat then?
financltravsty 3y ago
Fascinating! Apparently human-composting is legal in the state of Washington (see: Recompose). Curious what the author thinks about this for "Green Graves." It seems like we're past the experimentation phase.
CraigRo 3y ago
The clear message is that if you run the body through a large grinder before burial, it will degrade far faster.
- droopyEyelids 3y ago
  This is already available for livestock, and if you'd like to see it in disturbing action, you can search YouTube for "Whole animal carcass shredder | shredder for bio Methanation" It's useful for methane production, as well as extracting lipids for industrial purposes. Efficiency in disposal of human remains is a disturbing topic and I'm not sure thats what we should be optimizing for!
  - alanbernstein 3y ago
    > Efficiency in disposal of human remains is a disturbing topic and I'm not sure thats what we should be optimizing for! It may be important for space colonization one day!
    - seabass-labrax 3y ago
      Isn't space colonization one of the potential ways to get rid of undesirable persons for whom you would otherwise need that efficient human remain disposal for?
      - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
        Do you mean people like telephone sanitisers, account executives, hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, and management consultants?
      - alanbernstein 3y ago
        Certainly not an efficient way
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
tantalor 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_composting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_composting
__mharrison__ 3y ago
Does writing this in columns give it more authority? (I found the content interesting, but I'm not sure why the author wants me to scroll down and then back up.)
itslennysfault 3y ago
We did a full body burial at see for a friend a couple years ago. The body is not embalmed. They are wrapped in a biodegradable burial shroud. Then, you take them on a boat and head toward open ocean (for about 2 hours). Then strap 600lbs of rocks to the body and toss it over board. They said the body is just a skeleton within about 6 months. The whole thing cost $10k. This included body transport, preparation, boat/crew, and a catered meal during the ride back to shore. It was a really beautiful way to say goodbye to a friend, and a very eco friendly option that I don't think most people are aware of.

53 points by c0balt 3y ago

The fact that his TEDx Talk had 0.2% of the views of her TED Talk and he actually knows what he is talking about tells you everything you need to know about TED Talks. Let me add some substance to my comment. I grew fungi for a living and my boss bought an anaerobic chamber to try and find fungi that like no oxygen or low oxygen (microaerophilic) environments. Think glove box with thick plexiglass walls and all that. Even using lake sediments etc., we really couldn’t find any that grew or liked it at all, or at least before the plates dried out over several weeks. Fungi are aerobic organisms for the most part. They love oxygen. And switching from aerobic respiration to anaerobic drastically reduces how fast something can grow. An old rule of thumb quoted is aerobic processes produce up to 38 ATP per glucose, anaerobic processes yield only 2 ATP per glucose. I assume in a coffin or buried underground, oxygen is gone very quickly from the bacterial bloom. So I don’t understand how her mushroom suit idea was ever going to work. You weren’t going to sprout a big flush of oyster mushrooms out of your body, it was just a fantasy like most TED talks. It’s science junk food.

DueDilligence 3y ago
[dead]
wodenokoto 3y ago
Yes. The original promise of of TED of presenting science and progress through well delivered talks got completely sidelined by telling make believe.
kragen 3y ago
apparently anaerobic fungi were discovered in the 01970s after decades of misidentification as protozoa https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609409/ which of course means that they don't include any mushroom you've ever seen

smithcoin 3y ago

Now there’s a business idea -figure out something to do with the 2-3 Billion pounds of waste chicken feathers produced annually.

Loughla 3y ago
Feather meal, animal feed, disposable diapers, and fuel for incinerators to heat/power plants are the existing uses that I know about from just Tyson Foods. Food production is super highly optimized; I have to imagine this exists already in most plants.
- garrickvanburen 3y ago
  This is consistent with my understanding that everything that can be sold out of an animal processing plant already is.
  - Cthulhu_ 3y ago
    Yeah exactly, nothing from an animal is wasted, they're too expensive for that.
  - KineticLensman 3y ago
    It used to be said that they use every part of a pig except the oink.
ArnoVW 3y ago
My in laws run a company that use hydrolysis to extract amino acids from waste feathers. Sells them to the pet food industry
svrtknst 3y ago
one idea could be to produce less chickens
- karmakurtisaani 3y ago
  But how do we stuff our faces with excessive amounts of meat then?

financltravsty 3y ago

Fascinating! Apparently human-composting is legal in the state of Washington (see: Recompose). Curious what the author thinks about this for "Green Graves." It seems like we're past the experimentation phase.

CraigRo 3y ago

The clear message is that if you run the body through a large grinder before burial, it will degrade far faster.

droopyEyelids 3y ago
This is already available for livestock, and if you'd like to see it in disturbing action, you can search YouTube for "Whole animal carcass shredder | shredder for bio Methanation" It's useful for methane production, as well as extracting lipids for industrial purposes. Efficiency in disposal of human remains is a disturbing topic and I'm not sure thats what we should be optimizing for!
- alanbernstein 3y ago
  > Efficiency in disposal of human remains is a disturbing topic and I'm not sure thats what we should be optimizing for! It may be important for space colonization one day!
  - seabass-labrax 3y ago
    Isn't space colonization one of the potential ways to get rid of undesirable persons for whom you would otherwise need that efficient human remain disposal for?
    - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
      Do you mean people like telephone sanitisers, account executives, hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, and management consultants?
    - alanbernstein 3y ago
      Certainly not an efficient way
toomuchtodo 3y ago

tantalor 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_composting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_composting

__mharrison__ 3y ago

Does writing this in columns give it more authority? (I found the content interesting, but I'm not sure why the author wants me to scroll down and then back up.)

itslennysfault 3y ago

We did a full body burial at see for a friend a couple years ago. The body is not embalmed. They are wrapped in a biodegradable burial shroud. Then, you take them on a boat and head toward open ocean (for about 2 hours). Then strap 600lbs of rocks to the body and toss it over board. They said the body is just a skeleton within about 6 months. The whole thing cost $10k. This included body transport, preparation, boat/crew, and a catered meal during the ride back to shore. It was a really beautiful way to say goodbye to a friend, and a very eco friendly option that I don't think most people are aware of.