2e26/1242246635-smurfs_color_pictures_sleeping_smur.jpgEngineering students claim to have developed a kind of mushroom that could potentially replace plastics, packaging materials, and insulation.

In a lab, workers grow mycelia, the roots of mushrooms that look like gobs of white and brown fiber. In place of dirt, the roots grow in agricultural by-products, which creates a series of intertwining fibers which give the product its rigidity. Then, they simply place the mixture in a mold and let it grow for a couple of weeks until it’s super dense (1 cubic inch has 8 MILES of fibers). After that they shove them in an oven to dry and presto, you’ve got a finished product.

One day we might all live in mushrooms.