Haley Mast is a freelance writer, fact-checker, and small organic farmer in the Columbia River Gorge. She enjoys gardening, reporting on environmental topics, and spending her time outside ...

Parquet power: fungus-treated wood could soon be used to create energy-generating floors. (Courtesy: Pazzo4562/CC BY-SA 4.0) Infecting wood with wood-decay fungus can boost its piezoelectric output by ...

This project involved a stabilizing technique applied to a larger chunk of maple wood that had been decaying for over five ...

Decay is a complex process in which organisms use a repertoire of enzymes to slowly exploit and ultimately digest their hosts. Fungi are master decayers of dead plant matter, including wood. So-called ...

As the planet warms, termites will likely play an increasingly important role in wood decomposition, researchers report, which will likely have important consequences for global carbon cycling in the ...

Q. I made some decorative gates with cypress, but now after two years, I am seeing some rot. Isn’t cypress decay resistant naturally? I did notice that the annual growth rings were widely spaced ...

Fungi have helped scientists make a breakthrough in transforming wood into a useful source of clean electricity, which could one day lead to “energy ballrooms”. The possibility of applying pressure to ...