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Crying Plants | Fungi Feasts | Super ‘Squitos

Crying Plants | Fungi Feasts | Super ‘Squitos

TCK #97

Steve Burgess
April 22, 2023

Happy Earth Day! Tree hugging encouraged, but elbow bumps are forever in style. Some more ways to celebrate our blue marble every day…

Water bottles: reusable > single use
Walk, bike, scoot, or take public transportation
Build a Dyson sphere around the sun for unlimited clean energy

New Section! “Rec Check” features 1 content suggestion I think you’ll like. Newsletters, podcasts, YouTubers, etc…waiting for you right after Clickables below.

-Steve

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photo by NASA

Crying Plants

Turns out sad plants actually cry. Researchers tuned in to plant emotions and heard audible signals when their lab garden was thirsty or stressed.

Crying plants produce 35 sounds per hour
While others only speak up once an hour
Ultrasonic plant chatter is inaudible to most humans

Many animals, including bats and moths, may be able to hear and respond to these signals. More research is needed to determine if these are truly cries for help, or simply a reaction to specific stimuli. Brb, apologizing to all my succulents.

If a tree cries in the forest and no one is around…

Fungi Feasts

Plastic, it’s what’s for dinner…if you’re fungi. Researchers found that 2 common fungi can eat polypropylene (PP).

We only recycled 1% of 75 million tons of PP in 2015
Hungri Fungi: Aspergillus terreus and Engyodontium album
Chomped down 27% of their PP-platters in ~90 days

Natural fungal enzymes break down PP substrates into simple, absorbable molecules. Though it’s a big discovery, researchers still need to optimize the process before commercializing. So there’s mushroom for improvement.

Commercial idea: fungi eating a polypropylene plum

Super ‘Squitos

A mosquito factory will create and release 5 billion blood suckers per year. Non-profit World Mosquito Program (WMP) is creating Wolbachia pipientis infected pests to reduce disease transmission.

W. pipientis = bacterium that kills common mosquito viruses
WMP’s super ‘squitos will slowly spread this to wild swarms
Primary disease target: dengue

Early studies show dengue cases are reduced by 38-77%. More data collected over the next 10 years will paint a clearer (and hopefully less diseased) picture. What could go wrong? *buys more bug spray*

Click here for more DEETs

Clickables

Rec Check

ClimateRaise is a bi-weekly newsletter run by a friend of mine and her team. Check them out to better understand the future!

ClimateRaise

ClimateRaise enables investors to diversify their deal flow, and early-stage climate startups led by founders who identify as women, gender-non conforming individuals, and individuals of marginalized genders, to access the capital and network they need.