This mushroom brick could replace concrete
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- 🍄 The world is addicted to concrete, and it’s making climate change a lot worse. But there’s a new generation of futuristic, sustainable building materials on the way. We try out mushroom-bricks as a future material by growing a brick ourselves and putting it to the test. 🍄
The Verge’s sponsors play an important role in funding our journalism but do not influence editorial content. For more information about our ethics policy, visit www.theverge.c...
Subscribe: bit.ly/2FqJZMl
Like Verge Science on Facebook: bit.ly/2hoSukO
Follow on Twitter: bit.ly/2Kr29B9
Follow on Instagram: goo.gl/7ZeLvX
Read More: www.theverge.com
Community guidelines: bit.ly/2D0hlAv
Subscribe to Verge on TH-cam for explainers, product reviews, technology news, and more: goo.gl/G5RXGs
What futuristic building material should we look into next?
not futuristic, but presently the majority of the bricks around the world are made of clay, not cement
@@late-riser I wouldn't be so sure. Of course it depends on where you live but most building sites I'm familiar with (France) seem use bricks made of cement
I see the implementation, it's not impossible, it'll just do take a long process not unless they found a faster way to mass produce the same mushrooms
@@late-riser Not sure about most bricks are clay, pretty sure here in Asia(Philippines) we mostly use concrete bricks, same goes to our fellow neighboring countries, Heck we just pour down concrete itself.
Polyactic acid plastocs
*Everybody is a gangsta until the building starts growing itself*
Thanks for the nightmare.
There is a concrete that already does that: it has bacteria that eats sugar and it "shits" kind of a biological concrete . Perhaps by mixing these two you can have a really biological active house!
@@Kazenikatze Golden sub-comment
@@Kazenikatze Imagine eating your own house😂😂
@@bruceluiz how r u gonna give it so much sugar?
I know exactly what kind of mushroom related epiphany he had, lol
🤫
I DON'T GET IT. NOT FUNNY.
@@twr412 “magic mushrooms,” most likely
I knew it from the moment he mentioned "medicinal."
A magic one.
So, William desided to get into the science of mycology after tripping on shrooms? Cool
Well, me too.
but when will he do a black alert and activate spore drive?
@@alveolate awesome reference
I’ll probably do the same lol but trying to get with DMT first
okokokokok
When I made my thesis in engineering I realized how serious the cement problem in construction. We literally don't have an alternative for a load bearing concrete. Everything shown in this vid is architectural, the structural materials are the most important.
As an engineer I struggled to watch this video. They asked the mechanical engineer for help to test the brick, but failed to give any proper data from the outcome of the tests. Stack the bricks on top and look at it to see how much it deformed? I mean, wtf, they didn't even bring anything to measure the deformation. Then they lit it on fire before they did a proper decompression test to check what sort of "yield strength" it had, neither did they give any sort of strength data from the other company that had made a bunch of these mushroom bricks. I'm just left sitting here shaking my head...
Lol and concrete is one of the most recycle able material in the world
>we literally don't have an alternative
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I've literally got photo evidence of this, but here in Newfoundland where bedrock isn't very far down, I've actually found that the oldest buildings were bricked directly onto the bedrock itself. The building in question that I have photos from was a mixed use 3 floor building plus a basement. It was mined to foundation form with a pick and shovel and then built up from there.
For using mushrooms to become a viable building material, we should look at cost of the material, speed, durability, elasticity, and water/fire/heat/wind/cold-resistance of the material. When everything is good there is another problem and that is the transportation and the local production. If the material is harder to produce than concrete or locally sourced material, less developed countries will not try to use the new material.
they are experimenting
Doubtful that its viable. Def going to take alot more time, and processes to make these mushroom bricks, def not sure i would buy any improved enviromental impact compared to its competitors
@@titanblooded6222 There's still tons of research and experimentation that can be done. So the question of "viability" probably won't be conclusively answered for a while. Remember we've been improving the recipes and manufacturing methods of concrete for something like 1000 to 1500 years. Mushroom-architecture is pretty new by those standards.
...and storage and time. I've a lot of free storage room on my farm and I can wait half a year for a reasonable amount of building material, so I am going to try that.
@@hypernewlapse still wouldn't come close to how cheap concrete is or how easy it is to make.
When you done the heat test it would have been better if you would have done the opposite and tested the clay brick for its heat protection as well. I'm not doubting the mushroom bricks proformas, just that I would of liked to have seen a direct comparison that's all
Right, and if you water them would they spring back up? If its for buildings or construction. If it could then it would become deadly falling bricks. This seems like a publicity stunt for funds
I agree the heat/insulation test was not very good. I think most building materials would have performed the same, plus not catching fire?
A comparission would have been good to know how it.... COMPARES :D
This video doesn't showcase it, but researches possibly would have already done these tests, plus the other tests like abrasion, expansion, etc. Since this has already been used in construction.
@@Sivah_Akash Then why not include this? If it is to show how good this material is at least providing the data from the papers. It seems their research wasnt very throrough?
@@sergitanderson7541, those tests require specialized equipment, which is difficult to do during the pandemic. Also I think the larger point of this video is to share that alternate building materials exist and not about the specific engineering behind them.
I do agree with you that for folks who are a bit more interested in this, a more in depth comparison would have been nice. Also I do think the research wasn't thorough, maybe because this is still a new field?
"Am I allowed to say anything" This is Verge not Vice 😂
"experimenting with them for culinary value"
Yep, we all been there, until they banned selling them in the shops
culinary and medicinal value
@Ankit Meher psychedelic substance found in some mushrooms that's why
@@smashandburnyt6938 they can breed the psychedelics out the mycelium
Mushrooms thrive off of dead animals and decompose them that should tell u something already
Plus I think? Some of them obviously are deadly but some I think are associated with drugs
Do you know why people want to buy a building made out of this? Because there is "mush room" in there
if you made this joke you are a dad
Oh hey dad!
no.
ba dum tsss
And still there mush room for advances in the technology.
"I don't know anyone else who has made mushroom bricks before"
Lady, literally the guy you just interviewed has made mushroom bricks.
@@oreoswithasideofmilk9703 7:17
Anyone else implies other than the guy who is interviewing.
Mycotexture has been a thing since the mid-2000s
So hypothetically with this I can craft shroomite armor.
Or grow some mooshrooms off it
"Can i show you something?"
"Well no, i'd rather you not"
"Oh, ok.."
"Nice brick"
Paul Stamets is a passionate mushroom scientist on the west coast who thinks mushrooms are essential to saving the planet. Brilliant and a little kooky, he is great to follow as well.
Best part is when the Lexus logo vanishes right when he talks about tripping on shrooms.
He likely forgot to mention psilocibe cubensis in his cultivated mushroom species
"forgot"
"Can I show you something?"
- No
The End.
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY GEORGE LUCAS
Founded by the people who care the Biden administration 😂10 billion dollars program
hahhhaha
Bruh, the mushroom brick caught FIRE
The way the brick started disintegrating when she put the fire out isn't filling me with confidence
Americans make a lot of their homes out of wood anyway
Well if your house is on fire bricks are your last worry.
I feel like I've heard this idea before, the idea of making bricks from some sort of fibrous mushroom materials. I'm pretty sure this technology's been around for at least 10 years now
Yeah saw that at the science fair few years ago
Yeah, it's kinda stucked
Just because you saw it ten years ago doesn’t mean this isn’t new and innovative tech. It takes a long time to develop a new technology, and it takes a long time to get it to production.
@@Antenox and it takes a few seconds to copy something!
@@Antenox perfect answer
What stops pests and insects just eating away the mushroom bricks?
Yeah and how do they think this will last +30 years without needing repairs ? What about heavy rains, cold temperatures (-20C or more), mold? This seems like such a far fetched idea.
I'm generally curious as to how they plan on keeping the mycelium from degrading.. it seems like it would be the perfect medium for fungi to incubate.
@@eKSe1337 The same way we kept wood structures up for centuries, paint.
@Ankit Meher several animals eat fungi. Some fungi, for example chanterelle, mushrooms are edible for humans.
@Ankit Meher we eat mushrooms, which are composed of mycelia.
Imagine living in a mushroom villages like smurfs
I know a mushroom scientist, he's a really fun guy
I don't think it can replace concrete, but it maybe will be used to build small buildings like the ones we have made from wood.
Since I was a kid I imagined it could be a suitable replacement for studs in wood framing. If you can get the fibers long enough and in one direction, you could get a product light enough and sturdy enough to replace wood.
Wood is actually very strong and can make much bigger structure, when engineered and reinforced properly. This would likely be able to replace brick, and if play our cards right, it could replace concrete. However, we would have to understand how tall the ancient giant mushrooms got to.
What a great topic to explore, and literally every person you interviewed, William, David, and Sonia, were all such cool guides for you to interview! Can't wait to hear more about their work, they seem like they're going places.
imagine a self growing house. “oops, spilled some sugar on the floor! ah well, guess we’ll be growing a new table by next month
That sounds like the premise for a Goosebumps book tbh.
This was so unscientific. Good to know, but could you please do the tests better? This hurt.
imagine having mushroom allergies and moving to a house made of them...
imagine to have a brain and actually use it...
You know that wouldn‘r be a problem at all? The bricks do not have any spores that could cause allergies and if you start eating your house, there is sth else wrong with you
you'll still need the cement to merge those into walls.. right? right...
But they can actually grow attaching each other like shown in that Paris exhibit which is insanely cool
with composite non-fried clay bricks we used "composite" clay mortar (reinforced with barley husks) - totally sustainable
come to think of it... we were much, much more eco-friendly in the nineties, when we were much poorer and did not have enough money for cement (other than for the foundation) :) (speaking of Moldova)
Not necessarily
We need a full documentary on the mushroom guy. Absolute legend.
This was fantastic. The introduction was really engaging and the guests were delightful. I would love to hear more about this topic. Thanks!
Thanks for watching, Mike!
I think this has a lot of potential to replace packaging such as styrophoam , and maybe be a good replacement to glass wool and acoustic foam , but I think it might be a waste of time to look at it like a building material , it's biodegradable and not very strong , I think they will be better of investing their time on these other uses .
What's next, clay bricks?
:D
I'm thinking it might be a decent replacement for the wood used in house construction.
But wood is already renewable???????
@@sandworm9528 Have you checked the cost on wood lately. Here in Canada it's ridiculous! About $50 for a sheet of plywood if your lucky. It was $75 for a long time.
I really love bricks and brick bonds and all that. That being said, good old fashion terracotta bricks ARE sustainable and they can bear loads. They're made of dirt, the most readily available material on the planet.
With that considered, I don't know what niche mushroom bricks are really trying to fill, from what I've seen.
I think you would really have to utilize the fact that they grow to be useful.
An idea I had was the fact that mycelium naturally bonds to wood, which is another building material. If you are really able to establish concrete level of strength, that could be a great natural combo.
There is a full fledged company called mycotech that create this kind of brick and many more
Maybe try mixing it with hemp to give it greater strength and for a greater capacity for fire resistance (as well as many other advantages)?
Great work!
Hemp may be a better building material and much more available
keep in mind the word "could"
2:36 what's funjaiiiii?
you sound like a funjai at parties
The idea that you can dump some wood waste and mycelium into a mold and come back few weeks later to have a strong, lightweight, insulating building material is pretty amazing. I imagine you could add some kind of reinforcing strands into the material to make it stronger in tension.
- Verge Science: "This mushroom brick could replace concrete"
- Me: Nope. This is the last time you will ever hear about it.
Mojang: "Write that down, write that down!"
The tests were soo unscientific.
Not what I expected from a "science" channel
the question is.... can you travel at an instance through the mycelium network? Star Trek
asking the real questions
Wake up, Verge Science
We have a mushroom brick to make
Even if this needs another decade or more of development and testing, or can only be used for certain temporary builds, we very much need new building materials from "green" (renewable) sources! I'm very excited about the potential of this science.
Probably it's gonna be very expensive. This cannot become an alternative if it not cheaper than normal brick
@@B__SYAHRULMUBAROK Like I said, it needs more development. We don't even know if it could be cheaper or not because it's so early in development.
William lowkey the most chill dude ever
I've seen cordyceps growing in my college's lab. It seems like a very delicate mushroom to isolate and grow in a lab, but in the nature it grows so easily. It's the biggest problem with trying to grow fungi in an isolated environment, it seems so frail and prone to contamination, while in nature it grows seemingly effortless.
When he mentioned the mushroom's names in latin, some of them sounds like magic spells lol
Some are indeed magical
@@Hurileno one of them gave him the epiphany lol
Next step is Telvanni, living in a giant mushroom houses.
OK, but, what if you want your buildings to last a long time?
Will we have to stick to concrete for that?
If you keep fungi dry they might last longer, if you don't the rebar might still endanger the concrete building.
It would be amazing if fungus could replace a fraction of plastics.
My reaction as a recent highschool graduate. "Ah, I wish I had a research idea as good as this."
This feels like a child’s idea of what research is, I’m sure you’ll have a better one
"I have cultivated over 35 species of mushrooms, Cordyceps militaris, Tolypocladium ophioglossoides, Grifola frondosa, Hericium erinaceus, Hericium americanum, Panaeolus cambodginiensis, Psilocybe cubensis, Psilocybe cyanescens, Pholiota adiposa, jeeez there's so many latin names..."
This is one of those times where mushroom experts are super heroes!
Terraria : I have see this one
Scientists : How you see it's already new.
This is the most unscientific testing I've ever witnessed on the internet.
I don't think I've seen anything more "nature-is-metal" than a mushroom that kills insects 😳
It s not killin them, is growing on dead insects
The cordiceps mushroom make infected insects suicidal zombies to grown in his bodies
@@cx24venezuela infected insects aren't suicidal per se, they're just being eaten from the inside out
Awesome video and what an awesome guy!
Everybody gangsta till the concrete starts playing terraria music
It would of been a better story to cover how David Benjamin produced so many bricks, his experimentation on the structural properties, and the challenges he faced. That would of been more informative and convincing then someone's backyard experiments.
As others have said, reproducibility, cost, and structural properties will need to be matured severely to be a competitor for bricks alone (forget about poured concrete). I'm sure there are researchers looking at ways to produce greener concrete so that would erode further interest in this area.
Excuse me, cordyceps is off limits for experimentation, thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Turning mushrooms into bricks?
Didn't we hear that somewhere before?
Grounded fan?
*Stardew valley ost: "the smell of mushroom"(fall) starts playing*
This is very cool.
PS: Reminded me of my high school science project or when we experimented with cow dung as bricks.
What type of high school science project was that??
@@florac.6784 We had investigative science projects during our high school years and the cow dung bricks plus the dental floss from water lily fibres were the special ones I truly enjoyed doing.
@@simone222 That actually sounds really interesting!! By the way, did the cow dung smell bad?
@@florac.6784 If it's already dry, then it doesn't smell that too bad anymore. I'm saying this as an olfactory hypersensitive. lol
This madlad is going to turn a normal house into a half life alyx map
The Brick is the most interesting thing on the net
Mushroom brick: wait for me
Invasive mushroom species introdused by the bricks is a new can of mushrooms to deal with
Wow! I help the neighbor with his wood furnace, and he brought a load of wood, with many mushrooms turned to wood, on the trunks of the locust trees!!! How fabulous that I find this (or did it find me?) Thank you!
Imagine coming home and all the bricks to your home is gone.
Everybody gangsta till mushroom bricks grow mushrooms
"I found someone who does"
this is gonna go an interesting direction
Can this brick self-regenerate? They did put it in a oven and so fungus are probably dead but it'd be cool to see a self-repairing brick.
The miracle of regular concrete is it can be same heat transfer rate as steel pole support. If mushrooms concrete don't have this, then no more skyscrapers.
He seems like a pretty fun guy!
"am I allowed to say whatever?" No lmfao
we're the weird mushroom aliens.
I've never seen some one this happy to show a brick lol
You might not want to make a building material out of something you find disrespectful to cut the whole thing out off a tree.
That dude with mushrooms is super cool.
I know this a joke
Realistically mushroom bricks are extremely difficult and expensive to produce.
The brick in the flame test caught on fire very quickly under low heat, it started cracking before the test.
That “compression” test had only max 150lb where as bricks can sustain thousands of pounds under compression.
There was no tension testing nor shear test.
Imagine the mushroom brick under cold weather where water can break down the brick as soon as it rained or snowed.
This is horrible for the environment trying to find mushrooms to create the brick.
How do you recycle the mushroom brick?
Dude, that Druid has crazy high Charisma.
Off subject: My wife's favourite joke. What do you call a well endowed mushroom? A fungi to be with.
The issue with this is you don’t need to feed bricks, the thing of mushrooms is they normally thrive off of dead bodies. But the thing being no one is going to actually feed this fungi and when it’s in mass production they may start to fall short of their potential
I mean I’m not 100% sure how you’ll kill the fungi so it stays completely still and not overgrow or how it’ll grow as time goes on im not sure if it’s a wise decision to replace concrete with this
That sounds very nice and all, but I wonder how much would large scale production of these bricks compare to the production of concrete..
THAT is Dorohedoro!
Can’t wait until my Minecraft mushroom house is a reality
Mushroom names sound like Harry Potter spells
Cement hardens by taking back co2 out of atmosphere. But you know. Someone did not pay attantion at school
BRICK
mushroom bulletproof armor. light as paper, hard as steel.
Interesting, but issues such as durability problems over long time will arise once it gets used in a building. The original species of fungi used is growing on a tree and consuming wood from that tree to reach such sturdiness, which is why wood is used as a building material. Mixing wood pieces and this fungi might make for an interesting combination in addition to some rock mixed in.
I didn't know black locust can get that big. I thought they all died within 10 years. That's a very important tree. It's a legume, so it supplies the surrounding trees with nitrogen. It's a good hardwood.
Very good. It’s high time fungus began pulling its weight.
I think a lot of us over here had a mushroom related epiphany
*SMB1 1-1 theme starts playing*
“The easiest way to tell if something will catch fire is to light it on fire” XD
One brick versus the empire ... Imagine the hoodwink
2:56 nice edit, got the message
Upside down, inside out, backwards, and mirror image of water boiling in a Styrofoam cup is the best direction for mycilium to me.
Imagine how long it takes to make a brick