Plan to use mushrooms to clean up oil contamination

An anonymous British donor is funding a project which may help clean up the bespoiled landscape. American biologists Jess Work, Brian Page and Ecuadorian fungus expert, Ricardo Viteri, are working to develop a mushroom that can 'eat' the toxic components in the soil and help reclaim the land. The process, supported by American charity, The Cloud Institute is called mycoremediation. It was pioneered in the US by mushroom advocate Paul Stamets who believes fungus could have a role to play in helping restore land damaged by pollution. "Mushrooms are the world's great recyclers," said Mr Work. "They eat trash! "Something they really love to eat is wood but wood and oil are made of the same thing, carbon. We know in the lab they will eat petroleum, we want to find them the best environment in the field. The question isn't 'does it... [read full story]