How Mushrooms can save the world!

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

Paul Stamets is a mycologist who has gotten some patents for some very interesting and revolutionary inventions involving mushrooms. In this presentation Paul talks about several different uses for his inventions which include neutralizing environmental waste, restoring ecosystems and terraforming, pesticides, and protection from diseases such as the flu.

This is particularly interesting to me because I feel that every invention he talks about is important if we ever want to create a sustainable living environment here on planet Earth. I originally stumbled on this TED presentation while searching Youtube for information about Psilocybin Mushrooms.

All of the inventions that Paul talks about will have an enormous impact on our world. Pollution of our planet is a serious problem if the toxic waste coming from industries could be neutralized through new Mushroom technologies then we could be well on our way to creating a cleaner planet. On a tangent to a cleaner planet not having to use chemical pesticides because a mushroom technology that eliminates insect pests exists would also contribute to a cleaner Earth. Using certain mushroom species to combat flu strains like H1N1(swine flu) and H5N1(Bird flu) would be a strong leap for the medical industry.

Paul shows that his inventions work by doing experiments in the case of eliminating toxins and by providing real examples in the case of eliminating carpenter ants.

We can only hope that these inventions get support from venture capitalists and actually get onto the market.

-Eric Geller

Work Cited:

Stamets, Paul. "6 ways mushrooms can save the world." TED Conference. Long Beach. Mar. 2008. Lecture.