October 13, 2023: Mushrooms may be the next fire prevention material, even moderate drinking carries risks and the Paris bed bug infestation, explained. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Underneath every mushroom is a sprawling, branching network of rootlike structures called a mycelium. Now researchers have successfully grown these networks into Pop Tart–size sheets that could act as a fire retardant in building materials. Mycelium contains a lot of carbon. When exposed to fire, the sheet briefly burns, releasing water and carbon dioxide into the air, before petering out and leaving behind a black layer of carbon.
Why this is so cool: Unlike asbestos, which is still sometimes added to building materials as a fire retardant, mycelium does not shed noxious compounds when exposed to fire. Mycelium could replace the fire-retardant foam that insulates many commercial buildings, which can produce carbon monoxide and other toxic products when it combusts. Mycelium is also a biological material, and any waste it leaves behind is compostable.
What the experts say: "If the product reaches the end of its life, you can just chuck that mycelium in your garden," says Everson Kandare an engineer at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. "Just toss it in the green beans." | | | Earlier this year the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that any amount of alcohol was dangerous. The U.S. now recommends a limit of one drink a day for women (that is, 12 ounces of beer, five ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of spirits) and two for men. The science: A growing body of research says any alcohol raises the chance of premature death from a variety of causes. About half of cases of liver disease are attributed to drinking. Alcohol is also a potent carcinogen. It can cause cancer because it breaks down in the body to form a compound called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA. That damage can lead to at least seven types of cancer, including an estimated 15 percent of breast cancer cases. And according to the WHO, half of cancers in Europe linked to alcohol are caused by "light" or "moderate" consumption.
What the experts say: The Canadian guidelines on alcohol consumption estimate one additional premature death in 1,000 could be attributed to alcohol for those who have two drinks a week. That risk increases to one in 100 among people who have six drinks weekly. People take similar risks every day. The lifetime odds of dying in a car accident are one in 93, yet we still drive. We eat bacon. Some even go skydiving. "We choose those things because we want to do them in spite of the known risks," says Sarah Hartz, a psychiatrist at the Washington University in St. Louis. "That's where alcohol needs to be lumped." | | | • Media reports claim Paris is infested with bed bugs. Experts guess those bugs have always been around, they might just be experiencing a post-pandemic surge. | 5 min read | | | • More bug news: Global infections from drug-resistant bacteria are on the rise. Scientists are looking beyond antibiotics for treatment such as CRISPR, viruses that kill bacteria and microbe-slaying molecules. | 7 min read | | | • FEMA pledged up to $2 million next year to each state to improve building codes. Someone over there must be reading Today in Science and Scientific American editorials. | 4 min read | | | • The Psyche spacecraft blasted off this morning atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It's heading for a heavy-metal asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. | 7 min read | NASA's Psyche spacecraft launches atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 13, 2023. Credit: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images | | | • If you stop thinking of atoms and electrons as minuscule tennis balls and instead imagine any "quantum object" as something like a wave created in water, a lot of the weirdness of quantum phenomena is removed, write Jasper van Wezel, Lotte Mertens and Jans Henke. Van Wetzel and Mertens are at the University of Amsterdam, and Henke is a science writer in the Netherlands. Several so-called strange quantum phenomena can be achieved by water waves too, they say. | 6 min read | | | ICYMI (Our most-read stories of the week) | | | • The Flu Vaccine Works—In a Way Most People Don't Appreciate | 6 min read | | | • The Milky Way May Be Missing a Trillion Suns' Worth of Mass | 7 min read | | | • Solar Storms Can Hinder Bird Migration | 4 min read | | | Reminder that if you live in the western U.S., Mexico, or Central and South America, you may get a stunning view of a partial solar eclipse tomorrow, called the "ring of fire." | Enjoy your weekend and let me know if you spot that eclipse (bonus points for pics!): newsletters@sciam.com. See you on Monday. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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