COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a discovery that sounds more like science fiction than a lab report, a team of engineers at The Ohio State University has successfully created working computer memory cells from an unexpected source: common shiitake mushrooms. The breakthrough, which leverages the natural structure of the fungi, promises a new pathway toward sustainable and biodegradable electronics.
The project, funded in part by the Honda Research Institute, began not with complex nanomaterials, but with spores. Researchers cultivated large shiitake mushrooms in an optimized culture before dehydrating them into sturdy, disc-like forms. The real magic, however, lies in what’s inside the mushroom: a dense, interconnected network of root-like filaments called mycelium.
"We're essentially hijacking a perfectly good piece of nature's engineering," explained a lead researcher on the project, who requested to remain anonymous until a formal publication is released. "The mycelium network within the mushroom is porous and conductive, which are the exact properties we look for in a component called a memristor."
A memristor, or memory resistor, is a fundamental circuit element that can "remember" its electrical history, making it ideal for non-volatile data storage—the kind that doesn't disappear when the power is turned off. Instead of etching these components from silicon, the team found they could use the mushroom itself.
The Fungal Circuit: An Arduino and Two Mushrooms
The experimental setup was remarkably straightforward. The team used an Arduino UNO microcontroller board, a favorite of hobbyists and students, to create a simple voltage-testing memory circuit. They connected two of the dehydrated shiitake discs with wires and resistors, then gave them a brief mist of aerosolized, deionized water to rehydrate and activate their electrical properties.
The Arduino board was then programmed to feed different electrical waveforms—square and sine waves—into the mushrooms, reading out the state of the memory at a speed of 56k baud. The results were startlingly effective.
Depending on the voltage, frequency, and waveform type, the accuracy of the memory readout ranged from a respectable 46% to an impressive 95%. A 10Hz, 5-volt sine wave yielded the best results. When the team tested single read/write operations, the performance was even more robust, with accuracy rates soaring between 88% and 96%.
The full details of the methodology and results are available in the team's official study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, which can be found here.
A Greener Future for Gadgets?
The implications of this research extend far from a quirky lab experiment. The environmental impact of electronic waste is a growing global crisis. Traditional silicon-based memory chips require rare earth minerals and energy-intensive manufacturing processes, and they often end up leaching toxic materials into landfills.
"Mycelium-based memristors produce far less waste at the end of their life cycle," the researcher noted. "You could theoretically compost a device built with this technology. It's a significant step toward truly biodegradable electronics."
However, the technology is still in its infancy. The system was only studied for under two months, leaving the long-term longevity of data stored in a mushroom an open question. Could your family photos stored on a shiitake drive last for decades? That’s a mystery for future research to solve.
From the Lab to Your Living Room (and the Final Frontier)
For tech enthusiasts and DIYers intrigued by the idea of fungal computing, the barrier to entry is surprisingly low. With an Arduino UNO R4 and a pack of dried shiitake mushrooms—both readily available from online retailers like Amazon—ambitious hobbyists can attempt to replicate a version of this experiment at home.
The research also offers a real-world parallel to a famous sci-fi concept. Fans of Star Trek: Discovery will immediately recognize the use of a galactic "Spore Drive," a propulsion system that navigates space using a mycelial network. While the Ohio State team isn't plotting faster-than-light travel, they are proving that the concept of harnessing mycelium for advanced technology is no longer purely speculative.
It seems the future of computing might not be built in a sterile clean room, but could instead be grown in a dark, humid environment—and someday, it might even be on your dinner plate.
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