Imagine a world where computers don’t need to be built in factories but can grow naturally—just like mushrooms. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but researchers are turning this vision into reality. Scientists at The Ohio State University have discovered that mushrooms can act as living, organic computer components capable of processing and storing information like the chips inside your laptop or smartphone.
Their findings could transform how we think about computing—paving the way for eco-friendly, brain-inspired devices that are grown instead of manufactured.
The Beginning of a Living Technology Revolution
Computers have always been products of metal, silicon, and electricity. But as the demand for faster and smaller devices grows, traditional materials are reaching their physical limits. Manufacturing these components consumes enormous amounts of energy and relies on rare, non-renewable minerals. This has pushed scientists to explore new, sustainable ways of building computers—and surprisingly, nature might hold the answer.
In recent years, researchers have been studying biological materials such as bacteria, plants, and fungi for their unusual electrical and structural properties. Among these, mushrooms—especially shiitake fungi—have shown incredible promise. Their underground root networks, called mycelium, resemble the structure of neural networks in the human brain. This resemblance has inspired scientists to see whether fungi could be trained to think, learn, or remember like living computers.
Turning Mushrooms into Memory Devices
At Ohio State, a research team led by Dr. John LaRocco, a scientist in the university’s College of Medicine, began exploring how mushrooms could act as organic memory components, or “memristors.”
A memristor is a special kind of electronic component that remembers how much current has passed through it, even after the power is turned off. In other words, it “learns” from experience—just like a brain cell. This property makes memristors ideal for creating artificial intelligence systems that mimic human thinking.
The exciting discovery was that shiitake mushrooms can naturally display this memory-like behavior. When the researchers grew and trained the fungi, they found that the mushrooms could switch between electrical states thousands of times per second—similar to the way a microchip processes binary data (the 0s and 1s that power all computers).
“We were surprised to see how closely the mushrooms’ electrical responses mirrored the behavior of semiconductor devices,” said Dr. LaRocco. “Being able to develop microchips that mimic actual neural activity means you don’t need a lot of power when the machine isn’t being used. That’s a huge advantage for both computation and energy efficiency.”
Why Mushrooms?
Mushrooms are not only edible; they’re electrically active, strong, and biodegradable. Their fibrous mycelium structures form vast networks that naturally conduct and store small amounts of electricity. This makes them ideal candidates for use in bioelectronics—a growing field that combines biology and technology to create sustainable innovations.
Traditional semiconductors, such as silicon, require mining, chemical processing, and high-temperature manufacturing—all of which produce waste and pollution. Mushroom-based electronics, on the other hand, are renewable, low-cost, and environmentally safe. Once discarded, they naturally decompose, leaving behind no toxic residue.
As Dr. LaRocco explained, “Mycelium as a computing material has been explored before, but our work pushes these systems to their practical limits. We’re seeing how far we can go in turning natural, living materials into efficient computing tools.”
Building the Fungal Circuits
To create their living computers, the team cultivated shiitake and button mushrooms under controlled conditions. Once matured, the mushrooms were dehydrated to preserve their structure and then connected to custom electronic circuits using fine metal wires and probes.
Different parts of the mushroom cap and stem were tested to see how they responded to electrical signals. “Distinct regions of the mushroom showed different electrical behaviors,” said LaRocco. “By carefully adjusting the voltage and connection points, we were able to observe consistent and measurable memory effects.”
The researchers then sent controlled electric currents through the mushrooms at varying voltages and frequencies. Over several weeks, they observed how the fungal tissues reacted, adapted, and “learned” to respond to specific electrical inputs.
What They Found
After two months of testing, the mushroom-based circuits demonstrated remarkable stability and adaptability. The fungal memristors were able to switch between electrical states nearly 6,000 times per second with about 90% accuracy.
That means these mushrooms could perform thousands of data-processing operations every second—an incredible feat for a living organism.
When the team increased the electrical frequency, performance dropped slightly, but connecting multiple mushrooms together improved the results. The fungi began to self-stabilize and compensate for fluctuations, much like neurons in a biological brain.
“This was one of the most surprising parts,” said LaRocco. “When multiple mushrooms were connected, they started behaving more like a neural network—balancing each other and improving overall performance. It was almost as if they were communicating.”
A Sustainable Alternative to Traditional Chips
The potential of fungal electronics goes beyond novelty. According to Dr. Qudsia Tahmina, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State, this research could mark the beginning of a sustainable computing era.
“Our society is becoming more aware of the need to protect the environment,” Tahmina explained. “Developing bio-friendly materials like these could reduce electronic waste and help preserve natural resources for future generations.”
Electronic waste (or e-waste) is one of the fastest-growing pollution problems in the world. Each year, millions of tons of discarded devices—phones, laptops, TVs—end up in landfills. The components inside them contain hazardous materials that can contaminate soil and water.
If fungal-based components replace even a fraction of traditional circuits, it could dramatically reduce waste and pollution while also cutting production costs.
From Compost to Computing
One of the most fascinating aspects of this research is its simplicity. Unlike the highly controlled, expensive process of fabricating silicon chips, growing mushroom-based components requires only basic materials and conditions.
“All you’d need to start exploring fungal computing could be as small as a compost heap and some simple electronics,” said LaRocco. “Or as large as a culturing factory with pre-made templates. Both approaches are entirely possible with what we have today.”
This accessibility opens the door for citizen scientists, students, and researchers worldwide to experiment with sustainable computing on their own. The concept also hints at a future where computing systems could literally grow themselves, adapting to their environment instead of being mechanically assembled.
The Broader Vision: Brain-Inspired Machines
Fungal computing is part of a larger scientific movement known as neuromorphic computing—building machines that mimic the way the human brain processes information.
In a traditional computer, data is processed linearly, moving from memory to processor and back again. In contrast, the brain processes information in a massively parallel way, with billions of neurons communicating at once. This makes the brain far more efficient and adaptable than even the most advanced supercomputers.
By integrating biological materials like mushrooms, scientists hope to develop living circuits that behave more like neurons—learning, adapting, and repairing themselves over time. Such systems could revolutionize artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and sensory technologies.
Imagine robots whose “brains” are powered by organic networks that grow and evolve, or wearable devices that respond to your body’s natural signals in real time. The potential applications are vast.
Challenges Ahead
Of course, this technology is still in its infancy. Fungal electronics face several challenges before they can compete with modern silicon chips. These include:
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Miniaturization: Current fungal components are much larger than microchips. Researchers need to find ways to make them smaller and more efficient.
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Consistency: Biological materials can vary in texture and composition, making it harder to produce identical devices.
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Durability: Living or organic materials are more sensitive to environmental changes like humidity and temperature.
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Speed: Although mushrooms can switch states thousands of times per second, modern processors operate millions or even billions of times faster.
Despite these limitations, the research is a major first step toward proving that nature can compute.
Real-World Applications on the Horizon
Dr. Tahmina believes that mushroom-based electronics could soon find use in specific, low-power computing applications such as:
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Edge computing: Devices that process data locally, reducing the need for massive data centers.
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Aerospace exploration: Bio-based systems could function in extreme environments while being lightweight and biodegradable.
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Wearable technology: Smart textiles or sensors that adapt to the human body.
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Autonomous systems: Low-energy organic circuits could enhance the responsiveness of self-driving machines or drones.
Over time, as technology improves, these systems could evolve into fully organic computing platforms—computers that grow, think, and adapt without harming the environment.
A New Kind of Intelligence
Beyond the environmental and practical benefits, fungal computing raises deep philosophical questions. If a mushroom can process information, learn from inputs, and adapt its behavior—does that make it intelligent, in some form?
It blurs the boundary between living organisms and machines, challenging our understanding of what “computation” really means. Could nature itself be seen as one vast, interconnected computer—processing information through every root, leaf, and cell?
While these questions are largely theoretical, they highlight the profound impact this research could have on how we view both technology and life.
Looking Ahead
The Ohio State research team plans to continue improving their fungal circuits, focusing on increasing stability, reducing size, and enhancing computational power. They’re also exploring ways to “train” the fungi using artificial neural inputs, essentially teaching them to perform specific logical tasks.
Their work, published in PLOS One under the title “Sustainable memristors from shiitake mycelium for high-frequency bioelectronics,” represents a groundbreaking step toward merging biology and computing.
As Dr. LaRocco puts it, “We’re standing at the beginning of a new era. The fact that something as simple and natural as a mushroom can help us rethink computing is both humbling and exciting. It shows that nature has been optimizing complex systems for millions of years—we’re just starting to catch up.”
Conclusion: When Nature Becomes Technology
The idea of living computers may sound like fantasy, but it’s quickly becoming scientific reality. By merging natural intelligence with human innovation, scientists are opening the door to machines that are smarter, greener, and more alive than ever before.
In the not-so-distant future, your computer might not come from a factory—it might grow quietly in a lab, powered by the same fungi that grow in your garden.
And when that day comes, it won’t just mark a technological milestone. It will represent a new partnership between humanity and nature—one where the next great computer revolution doesn’t begin with metal and code, but with a humble mushroom.
Journal Reference:
- John LaRocco, Qudsia Tahmina, Ruben Petreaca, John Simonis, Justin Hill. Sustainable memristors from shiitake mycelium for high-frequency bioelectronics. PLOS One, 2025; 20 (10): e0328965 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328965
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