You don’t need a hyper-technological laboratory to give birth to a revolutionary idea: sometimes a mushroom is enough. AtOhio State Universitya group of researchers discovered that the shiitake – yes, the very ones we use in the kitchen – can work as tiny biological computers capable of memorize information and react to electrical stimuli. Yes, you read that right: mushrooms that “learn”. It’s not about magic, but about frontier science.
The heart of the experiment is a system called memristor – a sort of “electronic neuron” capable of remember the electrical signals received and to adapt as our brain does. Normally, these chips are built in silicon, with expensive and high environmental impact processes. American scientists have decided to replace metal with myceliumthe underground network of fungi, thus creating a “mushristor”a biological and sustainable version of the artificial brain.
To build it, the researchers grew mushrooms on a bed of spelled, wheat germ and hay. Once the white carpet of mycelium formed, they did dry in the sun and then rehydrated to restore its conductivity. Connecting everything to a small circuit Arduinothe mycelium began to react to electrical impulsesmodifying one’s resistance and memorizing the stimuli received.
In practice, the mushroom behaved like a biological neuroncapable of “remembering” previous signals and changing behavior accordingly. And the result is surprising: up to 5,850 signals per second with 90% accuracyalmost as much as the first silicon chips.
Computers that grow themselves, repair themselves and biodegrade
The “mushrooms that calculate” game is not a laboratory game, but an experiment that it could revolutionize sustainable technology. The mycelium – the network that forms the base of the mushrooms – is not only self-healing And flexiblebut it is also completely biodegradable. In other words, if one day these biochips end up in landfill, they would decompose naturally without leaving toxic traces or heavy metals.
That’s not all: researchers have discovered that mushrooms they maintain their memory even when dehydratedand they even can resist radiationthanks to a substance called lentinan. This means that “mushristors” could be used in spacewhere normal electronic circuits degrade rapidly.
The potential? Huge. Give her biodegradable wearable technologiesto the self-healing computersup to systems that they grow and adapt on their ownlike real organisms. As the researcher explained Qudsia Tahmina:
Society and science are looking for cleaner and less energy-intensive solutions, and mushrooms could be a concrete answer.
Of course, we won’t be able to install Spotify in a shiitake, but the idea that the nature can become an integral part of information technology It’s already a small miracle in itself. And who knows, in a few years we might actually be farming a computer on the kitchen counter.
