After centuries of distrust and disdain, mushrooms are having their moment. From sci-fi smash hits to drug trials, an emerging league of mycophiles are bringing fungi out of the shadows

The psychological legacy of our survival instincts that lead us to feel better when we are in contact with nature is the basis of biophilic design, which is being used increasingly in architecture, from airports to urban spaces to businesses.

Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin is the first chef in New York City to be cooking with Nature’s Fynd, which is not seafood at all, but a protein fermented from an extremophilic fungal microbe (Fusarium strain flavolapis or “yellow stone,” nicknamed Fy) discovered by NASA-funded scientists in an acidic hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a professor at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry, author of the essay collection, “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.”

Here are three Japanese companies with solutions that they hope will help their country cut its food waste in half by 2030, perhaps saving a bit of the planet along the way.