Forget silicon chips, the future of computing might be growing in your local grocery store. Scientists at Ohio State University have successfully built working computer memory devices from shiitake mushrooms, demonstrating that these fungal circuits can store and process information at speeds approaching those of conventional electronics while being completely biodegradable.
The breakthrough, published in PLOS One, addresses one of technology's most pressing challenges: the environmental cost of electronics manufacturing. While conventional memristors require rare-earth minerals and expensive fabrication facilities, the fungal alternatives can be grown from simple organic materials in standard laboratory conditions.
"We demonstrate fungal computing via mycelial networks interfaced with electrodes, showing that fungal memristors can be grown, trained, and preserved through dehydration," explains lead researcher John LaRocco from Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center. The team's devices retained functionality at frequencies up to 5.85kHz with an accuracy of 90%, far exceeding previous attempts at biological computing systems.
The mushroom memristors work by exploiting the natural electrical signaling within fungal mycelium, the thread-like networks that form the vegetative part of fungi. When dried and rehydrated, these networks can switch between different resistance states, mimicking the behavior of synapses in the brain. This makes them ideal candidates for neuromorphic computing, which aims to replicate the brain's efficient information processing.
Perhaps most intriguingly, shiitake mushrooms have demonstrated remarkable radiation resistance, a property linked to compounds like lentinan in their cell walls. This unexpected characteristic could make fungal electronics suitable for aerospace applications, where conventional electronics can be damaged by cosmic rays. The researchers suggest these biological circuits could provide a lightweight, self-repairing alternative for spacecraft systems.
The devices can be preserved through simple dehydration, maintaining their programmed states without power, a crucial feature for memory storage. Unlike delicate neural organoids that require complex bioreactors, the fungal circuits need only basic nutrients and can be mass-produced at low cost.
While the technology is still in early stages, with current prototypes being relatively bulky single units, the researchers envision scaling down the devices using 3D-printed growth templates. "The future of computing could be fungal," the team concludes, suggesting that massive parallel arrays of these biological processors could offer sustainable alternatives to traditional data centers.
The work builds on growing interest in unconventional computing materials, from bacterial nanobionics to organic semiconductors, as researchers seek more sustainable paths forward for the electronics industry. With global electronic waste expected to exceed 75 million metric tons by 2030, innovations like mushroom memory chips could help address both computational needs and environmental concerns.
Reference: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328965
