From Forest Floors to Flight of Silicon: A New Kind of Memory
In a bold fusion of biology and computing, researchers have demonstrated a working memristor built from shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes). These tiny, root-like networks of a fungus—known as mycelium—are capable of storing information by changing their electrical resistance in response to voltage. This marks a provocative step toward low-cost, scalable, and environmentally friendly memory hardware that could complement or someday rival traditional silicon-based components.
The achievement centers on memristors, circuit elements that remember their past electrical activity. Unlike conventional components that require power to retain data, memristors can hold a state even when power is removed. By leveraging the natural properties of mycelium, the researchers aimed to create synapse-like devices that echo the brain’s neural plasticity, enabling more efficient, brain-inspired computing.
Why Shiitake Mushrooms?
The team chose shiitake mushrooms for their robustness and resilience. Mycelial networks are known to display neural-network-like behavior, transmitting information via electrical and chemical signals. The scientists seeded nine samples in substrate-filled petri dishes and grew them under carefully controlled conditions. When the mycelium spread across the dishes, the samples were dried in direct sunlight to ensure long-term viability, a step that also simplified preparation for testing.
According to the researchers, different parts of the mushroom mycelium exhibit distinct electrical properties. By attaching electrical probes at strategic points and applying varying voltages, they observed different memristive responses. This suggested that a single organism—or a small network of them—could function as a rudimentary brain-inspired memory or synaptic element, capable of learning from previous electrical activity.
Performance: Where Mushroom Meets Memory
The mushroom-based memristor achieved a switching speed of about 5,850 Hz, with an accuracy around 90 percent in tests. That translates to roughly one switch every 170 microseconds, a decent pace for early-stage research. While commercial memristors currently sell at speeds near twice that rate, the mushroom approach represents a remarkable proof of concept with potential for improvement as the system scales or is engineered further.
Researchers noted an interesting nonlinear behavior: increasing voltage tended to reduce performance. The workaround involved adding more mushroom samples to the circuit, effectively distributing the load and stabilizing the memristive response. This insight hints at scalable architectures where multiple fungal elements work in concert to deliver reliable memory operations.
Implications for the Future of Computing
The broader goal is to develop microchips that mimic neural activity while consuming less power during standby and idle periods. If fungal memristors can be refined and integrated into larger systems, they offer several potential advantages: lower material costs, simpler fabrication processes, and a smaller environmental footprint compared with traditional silicon chips. Applications could range from consumer devices to aerospace, where weight, cost, and reliability are critical considerations.
Experts caution that a mushroom-powered computer is not imminent for everyday use. Still, the work opens an auspicious avenue for research into biodegradable, scalable components that could someday support more energy-efficient, brain-like computing architectures. As the team puts it in their paper, “The future of computing could be fungal.”
What Comes Next?
Future research will likely focus on improving the speed, reliability, and integration of mycelium-based memristors with conventional circuits. Scientists may explore different fungal species, growth conditions, and circuit designs to maximize performance. The ultimate aim is to develop practical, eco-friendly memory modules that can function alongside or as alternatives to silicon-based memory in a wide range of devices.
As researchers note, the concept could scale from a compost-heap prototype to a full-fledged culturing facility housing pre-made templates. The intersection of biology and electronics is just beginning to reveal how nature’s processes can inform the next generation of computing technology.
Conclusion: Growing the Next Wave of Technology
Shiitiake-based memristors illustrate a future where computing hardware may be rooted in living systems. While there is a long road from lab demonstrations to mass-produced components, the potential benefits—low cost, bio-degradability, and neural-inspired memory—make this a field worth watching. The saying in the research community captures the sentiment succinctly: the future of computing could be fungal.
