Your Computer Could One Day Run on Mushrooms

According to the online publication, Agri-View, the high beef prices are driven primarily by a severe shortage of animals, and secondarily by tariffs of 50 percent on Brazilian imports since the beginning of August. Higher prices are not making the U.S. cattle industry happy; multiple droughts have increased the cost of feed and ranchers are culling their herds with the total number of animals at its lowest since the 1950s. Now, cattle owners worry that Trump is going to import more beef from Argentina in an effort to reduce prices.  

More consumption of beef may lead to more global warming. Earlier this month, the World Meteorological Organization reported that greenhouse gas levels, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, reached record levels in 2024, with CO2 increasing the most in one year since modern measurements began in 1957. One of the larger contributions to carbon emissions in the U.S. is from the consumption of meat—11 million tons annually, resulting in 329 million tons of gas emissions. That amount nearly equals all the carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.

A new study from the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota calculated the “carbon hoofprint” for thousands of U.S. cities—the greenhouse gas emissions per resident associated with meat consumption. The researchers analyzed the effect that long supply chains of beef, pork, and chicken have on the environment, of which beef is the largest, and how that varies across the country, city to city. The team ranked the hoofprints of cities with New York having the largest, followed by Los Angeles, and then Miami. 

For example, Los Angeles gets beef from processing facilities in ten different counties, using cows raised in more than 450 counties, which in turn get feed from hundreds of other regions. Each stop along the way has its own carbon footprint, like fertilizer to grow feed and transportation that can stretch for thousands of miles.

The researchers created an interactive map showing the hoofprints, and they say that if Americans would cut out half their beef consumption and switch to chicken, they could reduce significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. The solutions are not just about cutting out meat completely. Instead of eliminating something like pork from peoples’ diets, one of the researchers said that cities could sponsor equipment for hog farmers to use, like anaerobic digesters to reduce the environmental impact.

The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The scientists say that fungi can be cultivated and trained to act as “memristors,” which mimic the functions of semiconductor chips. Memristors remember past electrical states and are integral to data processing. The researchers cultured samples of shiitake and button mushrooms, and after they were mature and dehydrated, they were connected to special electronic circuits and then electrified at various voltages and frequencies. 

John LaRocco, the lead author, said in a release that the fungi can imitate actual neural activity, which means there is no need for a lot of standby power when the machine is not being used—something that’s a huge economic and computational advantage, and friendly to the environment.

Conventional memristors require costly rare-earth minerals and significant energy to produce, but these alternative organic options are more sustainable. Qudsia Tahmina, one of the co-researchers, said that it is surprisingly easy to program and preserve the mushrooms to behave in useful ways, and they are an example of how technology can advance when it relies on the natural world.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

That research doesn’t surprise Björn Hjaltason. He found three mosquitoes in his garden—in Iceland—the last place you’d expect to find mosquitoes. Hjaltason told the Iceland Monitor news site that he brought the specimens, two females and one male, to the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, which confirmed they were Culiseta annulata—a species found in Europe and North Africa. He suspects the insects came aboard a container ship from a nearby port city.

As climate change accelerates and causes increased droughts, heatwaves, floods, and rainfall, conditions for mosquitoes to breed and spread viruses are expanding into new areas at higher latitudes and altitudes. The Arctic and Antarctic were places—up until now—where one could expect to avoid mosquito bites. Time will tell if the insects are able to gain a foothold and survive the winter as rising temperatures take the ice out of Iceland.

Scientists at University of Technology Sydney discovered that feeding coral larvae lipid supplements, including omega-3-rich oils and essential sterols, made it more likely they will survive and settle on reefs. 

Coral reefs are threatened worldwide by warming oceans, and there are countless efforts to restore them, but it’s been challenging to help young larvae succeed. Fewer than one percent of them typically make it past their first year. 

Of course, nutritional supplements alone won’t save coral reefs—action on climate change is crucial, but providing nutrition could give larvae a head start, supplying them with energy they need to swim and essential fats to help them grow and cope with stress. 

The team is taking their findings from the lab to the Great Barrier Reef, where they will directly feed coral spawn collected in the area. The work will be carried out in partnership with local Indigenous communities and other stakeholders to support not only the next generation of corals but also the next generation of reef stewards.

The study was published in Communications Biology.