Photo: Tinder bracket fungus / Nail fungus / Polypore Tinder / Horse hoof (Fomes fomentarius) on a fallen tree trunk, Belgium. (Photo Files – Universal Images Group via Getty/Arterra)
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – In the future it is not impossible for us to find headphone made from mushrooms. The research team’s latest findings mention the potential of engineering mushrooms to become plastic.
Research published in the journal Science Advances using Fomes type mushrooms. The mushroom was used as one of the ingredients for starting fires for thousands of years.
In the future, the fungus is reported to be able to produce materials with different but sponge-like properties.
“We were amazed by the structure because one thing that a biologist pays attention to is that when something beautiful starts to form, nature doesn’t do it because how beautiful it is, there must be a function,” said one of the researchers from Finland’s VTT Technical Research Center, Pezhman Mohammadi quoted from The Verge, Thursday (23/2/2023).
Uniquely, Fomes has three layers. Each layer is said to have a different function from one another.
For example, the first layer on the outside is very hard. This coating can create an impact-resistant coating on the windshield.
In the soft middle layer can be made to leather-like material. While the inside looks like wood.
In that research, Mohammadi and his team also made a set of prototypes headphone. They use a structure called a mycelium, which looks like a mushroom.
However, we still have a long way to go to replace mold with plastic. Because, we can not harvest it in the forest. So, the mycelium needs to be mass-produced on the market.
(tib)
