One Man Holds a PATENT That Could Crush MONSANTO and Change The World

a reply to: PlanetxIsComing

Purp we are all mushrooms kept in the dark and fed full of #

lolz thats not something i would argue against..

:-)

Had to think about Morrigan Lugas (Supergod (Warren Ellis) as soon as fungi were mentioned as a bringer of salvation. Nooooooo. Bad thought, bad!

And had to smile at the auto-correct of "shiitake": with only one "i" it gets corrected to "#ake"... Fantastic

a reply to: ObjectZero

Yup this seems like a double edge sword. Sure it could help deal with pests but we can never control it and it does have an effect of some people already. Also it's hard to say what might happen with cross breeding. There is no 100% control over nature.

There is no crosss breading involved..:-)

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: ObjectZero

Yup this seems like a double edge sword. Sure it could help deal with pests but we can never control it and it does have an effect of some people already. Also it's hard to say what might happen with cross breeding. There is no 100% control over nature.

There is no crosss breading involved..:-)

Yeah, but like I said before, they would need to do something nature isn't currently doing for these fungi to be effective pesticides, or else these "pests" would already be dead.

I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad idea, I'm just saying that it isn't without its own potential unforeseen hazards. Targeting certain insects with certain fungi in a manner that is not currently being done in nature could potentially lead to damaging an ecosystem.

Cordyceps is my #1 nope on the planet. Obviously, if everything goes well, bio engineering will get to the point where we could make cordyceps (or anything really) attack humans so we'll have to trust human ethics as we do with technology now.

I mean... They made a goat that has the spider silk protein in it's milk so spider silk can, for the first time, be mass produced. It's brilliant stuff.

That, and fungi are absolutely incredible at developing symbiotic relationships as well so looking to mycology could serve humanity well in terms of sustainability technology.

a reply to: hearows

That, and fungi are absolutely incredible at developing symbiotic relationships as well so looking to mycology could serve humanity well in terms of sustainability technology.

Yes i agree they are amazing at devoloping symbiotic relationships. Have a look at this thread if you have time..

Why trees are even more awesome than you think
www.abovetopsecret.com...

purp..

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: purplemer

It seens like every single time we try to use mother nature against herself she turns around and bites us on the ass . Does it kill bees .

It doesn't kill bees.

It isn't GMO.

It is simply mixing an attractant fungus with a toxic one where the toxic fungus has not already produced spores (it will do so in future as part of its natural cycle and the spores will be contained inside the insect).

This already happens in nature, he is just concentrating the ingredients into a specific location.

It isn't put on the crops. It doesn't get into our food.

The mixture of fungi is put nearby to the crop. It attracts specific local insects, who eat it and they, after being full, return to their nests. The spores of the toxic fungi become active inside the insects, inside their nests. At no stage does it get into our food.

When the last insect in the nest dies and decomposes, the fungus has no host and also dies.

a reply to: purplemer

Thank you, Purp, for another interesting, important thread.

Stamets is a wonderful, cutting edge scientist and one of those forward thinkers who knows we can only prosper working with nature, rather than against it. Fungi are fascinating and will likely be found to be the true masters of our ecology.

Anyway, I've followed his work for years and applaud it... and anyone following the same basic ideas.

Nature has been around for a good while and has already solved, in an economical manner, the problems we encounter in an ecosystem supporting mode... what more could one want from a technology (at least one in an ecosystem)?

I do foresee buildings made from fungi and/or trees... incorporating cleaning, plumbing, even electric circuits that spring from one "seed" or spore... basically, we already have "nanotech" in nature ... we just didn't think of it that way.

a reply to: purplemer

From what I've read...that damn paten was long as hell. The mycelium or fungi used can't be tailored so much as they use different species or combinations of species to repell/attract insects. Basically if you want to exclude a type of insect that would feed on the bait you would use a species shown to repell that type while not affecting the targeted species. In this way the targeted insect type will take the fungi back to their colony to infect the rest. Most of these are based of pre fruiting mycelium, however it is unclear to me after reading how once out there they don't reach the condia (spore) stage. Even in his own patent it states that insects may carry the fungus back where it can grow on substrates found in some insect varieties nests. Furthermore the picture from the article shows the fruit body emerging from whatever insect that is laying there dead.

Basically a lot of this goes over my head in terms of understanding just how this works, but I do know a bit about fungi and mycelium as I used to grow mushrooms myself. Even if its flawed I truly would like to learn a bit more about this and try to gain a better understanding...maybe even see it in action.


ETA: I know its long but if you haven't read the actual patent linked in the OPs source article please do, or even just skim it...it really went a long way to explaining the what's, why's,and how's to all this.

a reply to: purplemer

Well we go out into the woods to collect fungus each spring, many types of shrooms are edible, the one thing you must do before you cook them is to soak them in salt water to rid them of the insects that cluster inside them,it is a symbiotic relationship between with them out in nature.

Lucy, you have some splaining to do...

so we will have lots of crazy people climbing up trees and buildings.
with this growing out of thire heads?

a reply to: RickyD

Due to the fact that it is non discriminant it could just as easily attack other organisms like say...a colony of honey bees.

You should re-read the article.

...the area becomes no longer suitable for any insect(s) the fungi are coded for.

So, if the fungi isn't coded for bees - it won't kill them.

originally posted by: chr0naut

It isn't GMO.

From the patent description:

32. The method of attracting social insects of claim 20 wherein the entomopathogenic preconidial mycelium is derived from a genetically modified fungal species.

a reply to: RickyD

Thanks for the explantion I will try and read the Patent i like shrooms too but I am sure lots of it will go over my head..

purp..

a reply to: purplemer
I hope it is safe and effective, and puts Monsanto out of
Business as well as other companies that are producing
GMO's.

Great Post OP

Rebel 5

I really hope this goes somewhere and doesn't end up in the pile of sounded good but, nope, sorry.

a reply to: rebelv

Thankyou Revelv for your reply.. I too hope it hope it has an effect on the big companies too.. We need some change..

purp..

a reply to: stutteringp0et

Yea the way the article words things actually confused me more than anything as it seemed to be a way more dumbed down version which left me thinking stuff was unaccounted for and other discrepancies. When I actually read the entire patent this morning I got a better understanding of what's going on. It seems they have classified and studied a vast amount of species of fungus and cataloged what attracts what and what repels what. So they mix and match based on what they want to target and what's in the area that needs to be kept away. Also these are usually deployed in a trap format like a wood block that has grooves, holes, or channels etc. sized to fit the insect targeted...it got really in depth with the science behind it and good portions go over my head but I did learn a whole lot more about this.

(Omitted section refuting genetic modification) see edit below.

I actually like this idea as its not only biological and safe but allows much more specific targeting of species. I had no idea the vastness with which the fungi world has been cataloged. Again that patent is chalk full of specifics that explain a lot better than I can.

ETA: guess I get to eat my words again...as claim 32. Points out. However after reading through the almost 40 claims pertaining to claim 20. It seems that there are different methods for keeping the different types of bait fungi from producing spores before they've had time to be ingested by the target pest. So not all forms contain modified mycelium just the type that claim refers to. If I understood it correctly.

Here is claim 20.

20. A method of attracting social insects comprising providing an insect attracting amount of an entomopathogenic preconidial mycelium selected from the group consisting of Metarhizium and Beauveria, cultivated on a solid substrate and not including any conidia bearing imperfect stages, to a targeted social insect locus wherein the entomopathogenic preconidial mycelium is cultivated under elevated carbon dioxide conditions, wherein the elevated carbon dioxide conditions are 2.000 parts per million or more and wherein the entomopathogenic preconidial mycelium comprises a strain that does not sporulate for at least ten days after overgrowth of the solid substrate.

I won't bother posting the other 38. Claims pertaining to this but you can find them here...
Patent Link

Prediction: this won't have any significant impact, and nothing will really change...just like with every other interesting idea or invention that seems like it could change things...

I guess I'm becoming a bit jaded and cynical, huh?

originally posted by: RickyD
a reply to: stutteringp0et


I want to say from the patent side there is nothing about modifying, mutating, or any other combining or changing of species at all. They mearly use 2 or more types of coexisting species of fungi to achieve their goal based on location and what's there.

From the patent description:

32. The method of attracting social insects of claim 20 wherein the entomopathogenic preconidial mycelium is derived from a genetically modified fungal species.