I just read this amazing article on Mashable about using mushrooms as packing material. You can read it here http://mashable.com/2012/05/04/mushroom-packaging/

This, this is why I’m fascinated by science and engineering and the people who think outside the box to solve problems.

I’m inspired when I think about civil engineers who looked at dirt roads & thought, we’ll build highways or who saw mountains and thought, we’ll build tunnels to go through them. And I’m just as fascinated and inspired as I read this article about using mushrooms to create packing materials that can be planted back in the ground and used as composted fertilizer for gardens.

I can only dream of being this smart and this inspired. There’s a great quote by the fictional character of Sam Seaborn on The West Wing. He says,

“‘Cause it’s next. ‘Cause we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill and we saw fire; and we crossed the ocean and we pioneered the west, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration and this is what’s next.”

These brave and brilliant explorers, engineers and scientists should be our folk heroes, our rock stars, our idols. Their achievements, their creations are every bit as inspiring as the works of Michelangelo and Picasso and Beethoven.

Imagine that, mushrooms as packaging. What’s next?