Fungal Memristors: A New Frontier in Brain-Inspired Computing
In a bold leap for bio-inspired technology, scientists have constructed a working memristor using shiitake mushrooms. These humble fungi, specifically their mycelium—the root-like network that ferries nutrients through a fungus—are now poised to serve as the core of memory in electronic circuits. The development signals a potential shift in how we build memory hardware: cheaper, scalable, and more eco-friendly than traditional silicon-based components.
Why Mushrooms, and What Is a Memristor?
Memristors are circuit elements that remember their own past electrical states. They act as both memory and processor components, enabling neuromorphic computing paradigms that mimic brain-like information processing. The researchers turned to shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) because of their robust, stress-tolerant mycelial networks. Mycelium naturally transmits information via electrical and chemical signals, bearing a structural resemblance to neural networks—yet it is not a brain, which means engineered control is necessary to coax it into reliable electronic behavior.
Engineer, Not Instinct
To turn the mycelium into a functional memristor, scientists seeded nine mushroom samples in substrate-filled petri dishes and grew them under carefully controlled temperature and humidity. Once the mycelium formed a dense network across the dishes, the researchers dried each sample in direct sunlight to enhance long-term viability before integrating them into a custom circuit. The goal was to exploit the differential electrical properties found in distinct parts of the fungal network, essentially fashioning a distributed array of synapse-like elements.
Performance Milestones and How It Works
When activated, the mushroom-based memristors demonstrated switching speeds of up to 5,850 Hz, with an average accuracy around 90 percent. In practical terms, the device could switch signals roughly every 170 microseconds. That speed, while slower than some of today’s cutting-edge silicon memristors, represents a remarkable achievement for a first demonstration using living tissue. In fact, the researchers note that commercial memristors start at slightly above twice that speed, underscoring the potential competitiveness of bio-based memory in the early stages of development.
Voltage played a critical role in performance. The team observed that higher voltages tended to reduce efficiency, but could be countered by adding more mushrooms to the circuit. This insight highlights a fundamental trait of biological systems: scalability can compensate for fragility, at least in experimental setups. By designing larger fungal networks with multiple parallel pathways, developers can maintain reliable performance and increase memory density without resorting to exotic materials.
Implications for the Future of Computing
The mushroom memristor is more than a novelty. It embodies a broader quest to create low-cost, biodegradable components capable of powering future computing devices—from personal gadgets to aerospace systems. The researchers emphasize that the practical deployment of fungal memory is not imminent for everyday doomscrolling, but the study lays important groundwork for eco-friendly alternatives to silicon and titanium-based memory technologies.
John LaRocco of Ohio State University frames the breakthrough as a potential pathway to energy-efficient hardware. “Being able to develop microchips that mimic actual neural activity means you don’t need a lot of power for standby or when the machine isn’t being used,” he remarks. That kind of energy savings could translate into meaningful cost reductions and new design freedoms for compact, autonomous systems.
From Compost Piles to Computing Labs
The team envisions a spectrum of environments where fungi-and-electronics experiments could flourish—from small-scale DIY setups to fully fledged culturing facilities. The central idea is that each stage of the mushroom’s life cycle can be harnessed for computation, with the mycelium acting as a dynamic substrate that evolves alongside its electronic circuitry. The researchers’ conclusion is striking: “The future of computing could be fungal.”
As researchers continue to refine the interface between living tissue and electronic hardware, mushroom-based memristors may eventually complement or even replace certain memory functions in resource-constrained or environmentally conscious applications. The path from lab demo to real-world hardware remains long, but the early results offer a compelling glimpse of a future where fungi contribute to the backbone of computation.
