“Total synthesis” is an entire field where the goal is to make a biologically-derived compound through abiotic means. I’m told the general result is that someone spends they’re whole PhD making one compound, and ends up with a few mg, just enough to say “yep, that’s it.” It’s not meant to be practical. The difference hear is that they identified and are using the mushroom’s enzymes the same way the mushroom does. I can’t see whether they did it by isolated the enzymes from a mushroom, or maybe putting the mushroom enzyme genes in yeast or bacteria to get the enzymes?
@R.Birks In high school a kid in my AP Bio class decorated the cover he put on his textbook with the LSD synthetic process. It’s not a secret, and shouldn’t really need university sanction. That’s just not the thing that limits access to LSD. Of course, sometimes administrators make foolish choices in regards to censorship, anyway.
