Asteroid-eating Fungi, Psychedelic…Maybe, Printing Organs

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, you’ll learn about mushrooms that can eat asteroids to make space soil, how our thoughts affect us as we microdose psychedelics, and efforts to 3D print organs like kidneys and lungs!

Hungry mushrooms.

Fungi Could Make Soil From Asteroids and Homes on Mars by Madeleine Gregory
- https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/fungi-could-make-soil-from-asteroids-and-homes-on-mars
Making Soil for Space Habitats by Seeding Asteroids with Fungi by Jane Shevtsov
- https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2021_Phase_I/Making_Soil_for_Space_Habitats/
Could Future Homes on the Moon and Mars Be Made of Fungi? by Frank Tavares
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/myco-architecture
Future Space Travel Might Require Mushrooms by Nick Hilden
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/space-travels-most-surprising-future-ingredient-mushrooms/

Far out thoughts.

Citizen Scientists Show Placebo Effect May Explain Benefits of Microdosing by Ryan O’hare
- https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/216134/citizen-scientists-show-placebo-effect-explain/
Self-Blinding Citizen Science to Explore Psychedelic Microdosing by Balázs Szigeti, et al.
- https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62878
What to Know About Microdosing LSD by Medical News Today
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/microdosing-lsd
Psychedelic Microdosing Benefits and Challenges: An Empirical Codebook by Thomas Anderson, et al.
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-019-0308-4

A different kind of printer.

“When we'll be able to 3D-print organs and who will be able to afford them” by Kristen Rogers
- https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/health/3d-printed-organs-bioprinting-life-itself-wellness-scn/index.html
“Advanced Polymers for Three-Dimensional (3D) Organ Bioprinting” by Xiaohong Wang.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6952999/#:~:text=Three%2Ddimensional%20(3D)%20organ%20bioprinting%20is%20the%20utilization%20of,7%2C8%2C9%5D

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:09.0	Time flies when you're learning super cool stuff.
0:11.0	I'm Nate.
0:12.0	And I'm Callie. If you're dropping in for the first time,
0:14.1	welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind.
0:17.8	If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about mushrooms that can eat
0:22.1	asteroids to make space soil, how our thoughts affect us as we microdose
0:26.6	psychedelics, and efforts to 3D print organs like kidneys and lungs.
0:31.6	Without further ado, let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:34.8	Okay, I know you've always loved mushrooms. They look incredible, they break down
0:38.0	organisms and molecules, but get this, they soon might help us out in space.
0:43.4	Okay, so fungi are great at breaking down complex molecules.
0:46.6	Some are strong enough to break down rocks.
0:48.7	Oyster mushrooms can even digest petroleum from contaminated soil.
0:52.4	But, okay, what are we hoping that they can do for us in space?
0:55.4	Well, researchers think that mushrooms may help us create soil for missions deep into space.
1:00.4	One of the biggest issues with long-term space missions is creating a viable food
1:04.4	source. When missions get long enough, like to Mars and beyond, it's impossible to
1:09.2	bring enough packaged foods for the whole trip. So they're looking for a way to create a continuous food supply without taking up a bunch of room.
1:17.0	Exactly. We've tried growing crops hydroponically where they live in water instead of soil,
1:21.0	but that requires a constant resupply of earthly nutrients.
1:25.2	It quickly becomes a big hassle.
	...

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