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Scientists have just built working computer components out of shiitake mushrooms. As described in a paper published in PLOS One, using mycelium–the threadlike roots of fungi–researchers created memristors, the circuitry elements that remember past electrical states. You'd imagine such a feat would yield a memristor that performs terribly, but the researchers say its performance wasn't too far off from that inside your laptop. These organic circuits can store information, process signals, and maybe even help future computers behave more like organic brains, all while being low-cost, biodegradable, and probably compostable when you're done with them. The team grew nine batches of shiitake mycelium in petri dishes. They let them sprawl and stretch into mildly disturbing, gross, tangled networks of roots. Then, they dried them out in the sunlight until they were ready to handle electricity. Once wired up to a circuit, the fungal fibers responded to voltage like living synapses. They were firing off signals at about 5,850 hertz with 90 percent accuracy. The researchers found they could boost power by wiring more mushrooms together, creating an even larger fungal network that improved circuit stability and speed. It's still very early on, but the implications here are wild and potentially game-changing. Imagine being able to grow the components for, say, a new iPhone or the aforementioned high-end gaming rig, from just some dirt and a lot of humidity.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good and healing the Earth.
