A parasitic fungus that grows on caterpillars has been turned into a dress designed to be able to repair itself if damaged.

In the video game and TV series The Last of Us, Cordyceps fungi evolve to infect humans and turn them into zombies, but in reality they are harmless to humans.

Using the fungus Cordyceps militaris as a base, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and her colleagues created a living textile that can be 鈥減rogrammed鈥� with different properties using various microbial components.

It feels denser and less fibrous than cotton, says Li, and is closer to a soft, non-woven sheet or a flexible leather-like material.

鈥淎fter washing and processing, the material does not have a strong mushroom-like smell,鈥� she says. 鈥淎 slight biological or fermentation-related odour may be detectable in freshly prepared samples, but this can be greatly reduced through cleaning, drying and post-treatment.鈥�

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The fungus is made up of thin filaments known as hyphae. Li and her colleagues first grew the fungus as small, spherical pellets in liquid culture, then washed them and placed them into moulds where they formed a sheet.

To prevent the resulting textile from becoming brittle, it was soaked in glycerol, which acts as a 鈥減lasticiser鈥�, making the naturally rigid fungal structure softer and more flexible.

鈥淲e do not use a conventional fabric, polymer mesh or other external supporting scaffold,鈥� says Li. 鈥淭he Cordyceps militaris mycelial pellets themselves serve as the structural building blocks, and their intertwined hyphae form a continuous, self-supporting sheet.鈥�

To add colour to the material, the team introduced yeast cells that were engineered to produce orange, blue and purple pigments. 鈥淭hese cells can be applied to the fungal textile so that the colour is generated biologically, rather than through conventional synthetic dyes,鈥� says Li.

The researchers also showed they could change the properties of the textile by adding other fungi, for example making it clean itself by repelling water droplets. For UV protection, they added Aspergillus niger, a mould that commonly grows on fruit and vegetables. This forms a dark layer on the surface of the material containing melanin pigment, which absorbs ultraviolet radiation.

If the textile is damaged, then fresh, wet fungal pellets can be applied to the area that needs repair and the fungus simply grows over the breach.

Under dry conditions, most biological activity is greatly reduced, and the cells may remain inactive or dormant, says Li.

But under humid conditions with nutrients present, some cells can become active again. This latent biological capacity is what enables functions such as regrowth and repair, and also means that the material is readily biodegradable, showing near-complete visible degradation in soil after just over 40 days.

Li and her colleagues created a dress out of their fungal material, but so far no one has worn it. 鈥淲e鈥檝e treated it as a rather precious display piece, and it was made in a small size,鈥� she says. 鈥淧erhaps next time we should find a few petite and adventurous volunteers to try it on and see how it looks in motion.鈥�

at the University of Sydney, Australia, says the biodegradability of the dress is amazing compared with what we currently have in terms of getting rid of waste from fast fashion.

But that is also a drawback because you don鈥檛 really want to be wearing something that is too easily biodegradable, as 鈥渋t鈥檒l break down while you鈥檙e wearing it鈥�, he says.

As the textile is alive, Beardsley envisages one day being able to change its qualities in real time. 鈥淚f there was some way that you can make it water-repellent for a while, becoming less breathable during rain, that would be fantastic, and then you can revert to the more breathable, less water-repellent version afterward,鈥� he says.

The otherworldly weirdness and beauty of fungi and slime moulds are captured in these photographs, taken by Jay Lichter for his new book , a guide to the 鈥渕icro marvels鈥� of New Zealand.

The ruby bonnet fungus (Cruentomycena viscidocruenta), pictured above, gets its scientific name from the Latin words for 鈥渂loody鈥� and 鈥渟limy鈥� because of the sticky substance coating its stalk, which can form large droplets. 鈥淭he reflections you get in these globules from a diffused flash make for an awesome shot every time, so I never get sick of shooting them,鈥� writes Lichter.

Below is the Cribraria slime mould, which is a protist, like certain algae and amoebas.

Below is the carnival candy slime mould (Arcyria denudata), named for the pink tufts it forms during its fruiting phase. It is only 4 to 6 millimetres tall.

Lichter discovered the relatively uncommon fungus Mycena lividorubra (below) under a log in New Zealand鈥檚 Wait膩kere Ranges.

And finally, below is another Mycena mushroom 鈥� though this one has been targeted by mould, 鈥渁lmost like a bridal veil鈥�, Lichter writes. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not all! The mould in this photo is producing droplets of guttation (excess moisture) along its threads, making for an absolutely wild shot,鈥� he adds.

Lichter hopes to inspire readers to discover the secret life of fungi themselves. Moss and rotten wood in the forest are your best bet, but Lichter has also found stunning specimens in car parks and vacant lots. 鈥淓ven the most unassuming locations are exploding with fungal life,鈥� he writes.

Jay Lichter
Allen & Unwin Aotearoa NZ

Just moments after Miesa Grobbelaar photographed this endangered humpback whale being freed from a chain, the whale 鈥減aused and looked at us, as if saying thanks鈥�, she said. The picture of the rescue effort, which was taken near the coast of Ha鈥檃pai, Tonga, won the Grand Prize in the .

Grobbelaar and her team of rescuers had answered a distress call about an entangled humpback whale, arriving to find a 鈥渉eavy rusted chain cutting deep into her tail鈥�, said Grobbelaar in an announcement about her win. They worked 鈥渃arefully and silently鈥� to free her, until the chain finally snapped, she said.

While humpback whales as a species are no longer considered endangered, with overall numbers having recovered from low levels seen in the mid-20th century due to excessive whaling, there are still聽some populations at risk, including those found off the coast of Tonga. These still number in the low thousands, which is around 30 per cent lower than before widespread whaling.

鈥淚t鈥檚 horrific and beautiful, it鈥檚 humanity鈥檚 relationship with nature at its worst and humanity caring for nature at its best, all at the same time,鈥� said Jarrod Boord, one of the competition鈥檚 judges, in the announcement.

The contest, which was open to photographers from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, also awarded prizes in other categories, such as this enchanting picture (above) of a Pluteus velutinornatus mushroom, which grows on wood, that won the Plants & Fungi category. Photographer Nic Wooding spotted the hazel-coloured fungi just before it had opened, returning a couple of days later to find it in 鈥渋mmaculate鈥� condition.

Scott Portelli took first prize in the Lands category for his kaleidoscopic time-lapse of stars above a rock face (above) in Windjana Gorge National Park in Western Australia, known for its distinctive red rocks. It took more than 600 photos to show the stars moving during the night sky, from dusk to dawn.

This vibrant photo (above) of a female peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus), taken in Bali, Indonesia, by Peter McGee, was awarded third prize in the Water category. The shrimp is guarding her precious cargo of red eggs, while scanning the waters around her.