In HBO’s dystopian drama “The Last of Us,” a star-studded cast — led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey — navigate a future marred by a fungal pandemic.
In the series, which is based on the award-winning video game of the same name, most human beings have been mutated beyond recognition by a strain of Cordyceps that warps them into zombies.
When it first premiered in January 2023, the global hit became HBO's most-watched debut season to date. The second season, which premiered in April, beat that record viewership by 10%.
It’s safe to say that the success of “The Last of Us” has given mushrooms — and the scientists who work with them — a bad name.
Since the show premiered, environmental toxicologist Danielle Stevenson said she’s grilled constantly about her work with mycoremediation: a technique that uses fungi to rehabilitate polluted soil by collecting and breaking down contaminants through natural processes.
“A common question in the public space is, ‘But if you use fungi to eat pollution, will they eat our house and our building and our faces and the whole world?’” Stevenson told Smithsonian Magazine.
“They will not,” she said firmly. “They’re a nature-based approach to handling our waste.”
Mycologist Paul Stamets first coined the term mycoremediation in 2005 in his book “Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World.” But scientists have been studying the benefits of mushroom cultivation for over six decades.
In 1963, plant-disease expert Horst Lyr used enzymes in wood decay fungi to break down harmful man-made chemicals called chlorophenols.
Since then, mycologists — like Stevenson — have been following in his footsteps to harness the power of fungi to improve land destroyed by wildfires, contaminated by hazardous substances, and riddled with water pollution.
One of Stevenson’s biggest wins traces back to her college years at the University of California, when she reseeded three brownfields in Los Angeles with combinations of plants and fungi. Within three months, her team saw a 50% reduction in diesel, gasoline, and solvents.
A year later, the continents were virtually untraceable.
Since 2023, University of Connecticut soil microbial ecologist Mia Maltz has been exploring how fungi and other microbes can help improve degraded ecosystems — and she says the mycology world regards Stevenson’s research as groundbreaking.
“Having field trials like [Stevenson’s] helps to build the knowledge base of which plants are able to accumulate metals in which conditions promote their uptake,” said Maltz.
Times Colonist reporter and urban food advocate Bill Metcalfe echoed Matlz’s praise for Stevenson’s work with a call to action: “To grow food in the city, heal the soil first.”
“Until now, there has been no organized local response to the huge obstacle of heavy-metal contaminants in our urban soil,” Metcalfe wrote. “Kudos to Danielle Stevenson for organizing a neighborhood approach to soil testing…mushrooms specific to the contaminant can remove toxins much more effectively than plants can, but making it happen is much trickier.
For Stevenson, she thinks we’ve barely skimmed the surface when it comes to using mushrooms to improve the world around us.
“We can transform contaminated sites into parks, green spaces, and affordable housing,” she said. “There’s just so much potential for this type of approach to work on a lot of different problems at the same time.”
Header image via Liane Hentscher/HBO
