Burying undies and grassy art

0:00ABC Listen Hello there, my name's Emily and you're listening to Newstime. Hello Emily! And hello to our ListenElegant Luka. Hello Emily, my name is Luka and I live in all my country. Hello for more of my people. I like five fighters, police, ambulance. I would love to be an ABC Newstime legend. Thanks Luka. Remember, if you'd like to hear your voice or maybe your whole class on Newstime, get your grownups to head to the ABC Kids Listen website to upload audio for ListenElegants and talk of the town. Today's episode is particularly grassy. We'll learn about a new sort of burial that's kinder to the environment. We'll learn about artists taking unwanted weeds and turning them into art.

1:00And we'll find out why thousands of people have been burying their undies in the backyard for a good cause of course. Let's get going. Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nies. When people die, there are lots of decisions to be made. Some cultures and religions have ideas on the best way to do things and different organisations and companies have come up with their own ideas too. If someone chooses to be buried, it's often in a big wooden casket. But now there's a new option. People can choose to be buried in a mushroom coffin. And for the first time in Australia, someone has chosen just that. Is it made of mycelium? Yeah, it is. Mycelium is the root at work of fungi of mushrooms. A company has figured out how to get these mushroom roots to grow in a coffin shape big enough to fit the person inside. Once they're buried, regular wooden coffins can take about 50 years to break down. But these mycelium coffins only take about 45 days.

2:02It means that the person buried inside is returned to the Earth sooner and a cycle of life can continue. It's a choice that's a bit friendly to the environment. The coffin and the body biodegrade. That means they break down and can turn into nutrients for the soil to help plants and new life grow. Because wood requires us to chop down the trees and mycelium is just mushroom roots. Don't need a chopped down a tree. No CO2 release. A woman from New South Wales was the first person in Australia to be buried in one of these mushroom coffins. The people who knew her say it was a choice that makes a lot of sense for the sort of person she was, always helping others and giving back to nature. She probably loved the ocean and nature. Maybe they wanted to honor them in nature because we are basically nature. Talking about death and burial can be a tricky thing. But the invention of these mushroom coffins gives people more options to choose from.

3:03Can I have another starry? More than 50 years ago, a plant called Bufflegrass was introduced to the Northern Territory. It's light brown and very spiky and it was brought in as a good way to feed cattle. But since then, it's grown out of control. Now Bufflegrass is found almost everywhere in Australia and is growing wildly. It's a bad. Yeah, it's bad. Bufflegrass spreads easily. It takes up space and nutrients for native plants and it can fuel big fires too. Communities have been trying to get rid of the invasive grass for ages but they need more help. When plants grow, you know that they actually need water and sun. But when plants grow together too much, too close, that means they can't grow properly. Some plants need space to grow like trees and the Bufflegrass will take over the area for it to grow

4:04which leaves no space for the things that actually help us to breathe. Carita Coltard is a Western Arranda artist. She paints bush tucker. That's the sort of foods that First Nations people have eaten for thousands of years. Her latest artworks have been created on special paper that she's made out of the invasive Bufflegrass. Carita created her artwork on this sort of paper to bring more attention to the issue. Carita and other artists and conservationists think that we could be doing more to try and stop the weed from growing in the Northern Territory. They hope that the government will officially declare it a weed of national significance which would mean that they would have more power to get rid of it. I think she's doing it because she wants to help in the place she lives in and or for the animals she cares for. The artwork itself looks really nice. It's got plants, texture, colourful. I think it's really pretty because she's used a lot of texture and made

5:06some maybe like Aboriginal things that they eat maybe and it looks really pretty. Carita's work is very beautiful to look at. She paints bush onions, sultanas and bush potatoes. Carita says the Bufflegrass has made it harder to find these bush foods but hopefully communities in the government can work together to get rid of it for good. If you'd like to see Carita's artwork, ask your grownups to head to the bottom of the newstime page on the ABC Kids Listen website. Wow, it's a week. Every year, scientists get together for an event called the Ignoble Prizes. You might have heard of the Nobel Prizes before, therefore the very best, the crem delo crem of scientists and scientific research. Well, the Ignoble Prizes aren't for that. They're for scientific investigations that make you laugh and make you think. It's worth celebrating that people have got spirit in them

6:10and that they can actually do better than themselves. We silly have fun, learn and do what they want to do. Yep, for sure. The winners of the Ignoble Prizes this year have just been announced and there are some very silly winners in the mix. A team of scientists at Hamilton College in America wanted to know what sort of qualities we look for in a friend. I like them being kind. I like them being caring. Silly. You'd think so, but actually it turns out people really value viciousness in their friends. They love friends that are kind and helpful, but also friends that have a vicious side that'll stick up for you when something goes wrong. Because they'll defend you if something bad happens. I kind of think I'm a vicious friend. Not to boast. A team of European scientists, won an award for asking 1,000 people to bury their undies in their backyards. Men waking up looking in your drawer to see if you have any underpants and just seeing your parents

7:12took them to put them in the garden and bury them. The scientists then dug up the undies to have a look at how much they decomposed, broken down underground. If they'd broken down a lot, it meant the soil was healthy, but I still have no idea why it had to be undies. I mean, okay, cool experiment, but that is just disgusting. And another winner asked who was more likely to steal lollies from a child. And they learned that it was actually upper-class people. People with more money were more likely to take lollies that they knew were meant for kids. Yikes. It's because they want to get more roacher and they're very greedy. The ignoble prizes only happened once a year. I'm already counting down until the next lot. Friends, listeners, newsloots, lend me your ears. It's quiz time. Question 1. What's the technical term for the roots of mushrooms used to make coffins? Mycelian.

8:13Question 2. What's the name of the invasive grass in the Northern Territory? Buffle grass. Question 3. Why were people burying their undies? To check on soil health. And your news, Nudler, a question to chat about with the people around you. Do you think these mushroom coffins will be a popular choice? And there you go. Thanks for getting down to the ground and grassy with me, friends. Thank you. See you, Emily. You're welcome. Catch you next time. Newstime is an ABC Kids Listen podcast. For other awesome podcasts to play, music to move to and stories and soundtracks for sleep, head to the Kids tab on the ABC Listen app. It's free from your app store. Sound familiar? There can sometimes be... No. When it comes to bedtime. No. Or nap time. No. Or dinner time.

9:13No, no, no. Look anytime. No. Drown out the sound of your progeny's complaints with nature, specifically with nature sounds by Anne Jones. Some long recordings that I've made around the country. Just nature. No wobbly. No. And for free. No! Wherever you get your podcasts and on the ABC Listen app.