Dress Made of Living Mycelium Can Renew and Repair Itself (dezeen.com) 34
Researchers in China have developed a living mycelium textile that can self-clean, renew its surface, and partially repair holes when treated with a nutrient solution and fresh fungus. The material can also gain added properties such as blue pigmentation or UV resistance by co-culturing it with yeast or other fungi. Dezeen reports: The breakthrough from the researchers at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology is a type of engineered living material (ELM) -- a material built off living organisms that stay active even after they're fabricated into their final form. [...] By working with living but dormant cordyceps militaris fungus instead, the researchers have been able to take advantage of its biological functions. The result is a material that is self-renewing and responsive to its environment, in ways that could one day transform architecture and clothing -- as seen in a prototype dress created together with material innovation company Peelshere.
It can also be adapted by mixing in other fungi or yeast, lead researcher Ke Li and her team detail in a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. In it, they describe a "programmable fungal platform" where mycelium is treated like a modular system, with the sheet material forming a base structure and extra biological abilities, such as colour and UV resistance, becoming "plug-and-play" add-ons via other organisms. This gets their textile closer to the self-repair, environmental responsiveness and controllable functionality that is the promise of engineered living materials, they argue.
The ELM's self-renewing and semi-repairing functionality comes from the mycelium base structure. Following drying at 45 degrees, the material is not quite living and not quite dead, but instead in a "low-metabolic, dormant-like state", Li told Dezeen, meaning it is not actively growing. However, new growth can be triggered by applying a nutrient solution of potato water, leading the dormant mycelium to germinate, send out new fungal filaments and renew the material's surface. When this nutrient solution is applied over a hole, along with a small patch of fresh fungus, it triggers the living cells to grow across the gap, seamlessly repairing the surface without any adhesives or stitching. The material is also naturally self-cleaning, as it is hydrophobic. "Its distinctive surface texture, biological colouring, controlled repair and biodegradability may be particularly useful in applications where visual expression and a defined product lifetime are important," said Li.
"Further improvements in durability, moisture resistance, safety and manufacturing consistency would be needed before it could be considered for routine clothing or permanent architectural use."
It can also be adapted by mixing in other fungi or yeast, lead researcher Ke Li and her team detail in a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. In it, they describe a "programmable fungal platform" where mycelium is treated like a modular system, with the sheet material forming a base structure and extra biological abilities, such as colour and UV resistance, becoming "plug-and-play" add-ons via other organisms. This gets their textile closer to the self-repair, environmental responsiveness and controllable functionality that is the promise of engineered living materials, they argue.
The ELM's self-renewing and semi-repairing functionality comes from the mycelium base structure. Following drying at 45 degrees, the material is not quite living and not quite dead, but instead in a "low-metabolic, dormant-like state", Li told Dezeen, meaning it is not actively growing. However, new growth can be triggered by applying a nutrient solution of potato water, leading the dormant mycelium to germinate, send out new fungal filaments and renew the material's surface. When this nutrient solution is applied over a hole, along with a small patch of fresh fungus, it triggers the living cells to grow across the gap, seamlessly repairing the surface without any adhesives or stitching. The material is also naturally self-cleaning, as it is hydrophobic. "Its distinctive surface texture, biological colouring, controlled repair and biodegradability may be particularly useful in applications where visual expression and a defined product lifetime are important," said Li.
"Further improvements in durability, moisture resistance, safety and manufacturing consistency would be needed before it could be considered for routine clothing or permanent architectural use."
Yeah, cotton too (Score:2)
I can definitely renew a section of cotton cloth "and partially repair holes when treated with a nutrient solution and fresh [material]."
Re: Yeah, cotton too (Score:2)
Straight out of Alita (Score:1)
Three things stand out:
- That's how the Venus people made all their things in Alita Last Order (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Angel_Alita:_Last_Order). And it wasn't attractive.
- "drying at 45 degrees" (celsius, I expect) that's standard outdoor temperature in the sun in many places right now. In some, it could be a problem since you can easily surpass that temp.
- "defined product lifetime" it's quite a cool way to say "planned obsolesce".
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Shit's all falling apart by third wash.
Yeah. Most of the talk and complaints about microplastics in the laundry water misses the point that if clothes were made to last longer there'd be a lot fewer microplastics in the laundry water (and thus the oceans).
Because it'll be harder to have clothes lasting for more than a decade or two while shedding that much plastic per wash...
Make the clothes last longer. And make the factories do a prewash or two to collect the initial burst of microplastics (which I suspect will be higher than subsequent washes
Re: Straight out of Alita (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I became sensitive to synthetic materials so switched to cotton and whatever Uniqlo make their Airism stuff out of. Lately it's got worse so I tried bamboo and silk.
So my main concern here is how will this stuff affect me?
Re: (Score:2)
I received a merino wool t-shirt (Unbound Merino) as a gift. Great shirt, but it takes a certain kind of person to buy $95 t-shirts that are recommended to be hand-washed and dried flat.
Re: (Score:2)
First thing I thought of was Harry Harrison's Eden series of novels. TL/DR: the series takes place on an anternate-history Earth where the asteriod never hit that wiped out the dinosaurs. They evolved into highly-intelligent beings that created extensive technologies, weapons, and vehicles based on bioengineering of other organisms.
Re: (Score:2)
- "defined product lifetime" it's quite a cool way to say "planned obsolesce".
Maybe "expiration date" fits better, like milk in the fridge.
I remember a joke by Garry Shandling about clothes needing expiration dates so that bachelors don't keep wearing them after they have gone out of style. Different reason here, but perhaps the same outcome.
Wasn't this how the last of us began? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't cordyceps the fungal family that zombifies ants and other insects? Why anyone would want to promote something that maintains physical contact between living cordyceps and humans is beyond my comprehension.
"Life will find a way"
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't cordyceps the fungal family that zombifies ants and other insects? Why anyone would want to promote something that maintains physical contact between living cordyceps and humans is beyond my comprehension.
Conspiracy theory: the "anyone" doing the promoting is already affected by the product they're hawking and it's trying to spread.
What about the weather? (Score:3)
Is this going to dissolve off the wearer when it rains?
Re: (Score:2)
Not a problem. They said it was hydrophobic.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't want to be weain' no rabid fungus!
Re: (Score:2)
I made something similar (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I came here to look for the fun guy
Re: (Score:2)
I tried knitting a sweater like this but there wasn't mushroom in it
You win the internet this week! Well played indeed.
But what about washing it? (Score:2)
It is made from living fungus. Which is interesting.
But will it survive a trip in the washing machine? Detergents are generally not fungus-friendly...
If we're lucky: It can repair itself. Until you wash it and your clothes (literally) die...
Re: (Score:2)
The summary said it cleans itself, so I guess you don't need to wash it.
Clothes that need special handling aren't new. I had a suit, once, that required dry cleaning.
I have something similar (Score:2)
A dress that gets repaired if you feed it thread and seamstresses.
next: shambling mound (Score:2)
Garment Care (Score:2)
To properly care for this garment:
- store it in the fridge
- wash it in the dishwasher
- iron it with a hair-straightener
When the garment has exhausted its useful life:
- cut it up and make a salad
- mulch it into your garden
- wrap Christmas presents with it
Don't wear it for a long time... (Score:2)
...or you will be assimilated!
The Last of Us (Score:3)
Does this dress ... (Score:2)
No. You make it look fat.
Living Ships (Score:2)
This makes me think of the Vorlon's living ships.