A research team at Ohio State University has transformed common edible fungi, such as shiitake and button mushrooms, into a basic electronic component called a "memristor." Memristors can remember the electrical states they have experienced and are a key component in building brain-like computing systems. This finding, published in the latest issue of *PLOS ONE*, suggests that fungal networks hold promise as a green alternative to future computing technologies, potentially replacing current microelectronic devices that rely on metals and semiconductors for processing and storing digital information.

Mushrooms have long been a focus of attention due to their remarkable adaptability and unique biological structure. Their interiors are composed of a dense network of hyphae, a natural conductivity that makes them promising materials for bioelectronics. This team discovered that shiitake mushrooms and other mushroom samples, cultivated and dehydrated in a specific manner, can be connected to circuits. They exhibit a stable memory effect when currents of varying voltages and frequencies are applied. This effect is similar to the memristor behavior in traditional semiconductor chips, meaning these organic materials can retain information even after power is off, much like computer memory.

The team attached electrodes to different parts of the mushrooms and tested them using the differential conductivity within their tissues. Two months of experiments showed that when used as random access memory, these fungal-based memristors can perform up to 5850 signal switching operations per second with an accuracy of approximately 90%. Although performance degrades at high frequencies, this can be compensated for by adding more mushroom units in parallel, similar to how the brain enhances processing power through the coordinated work of neurons.

The greatest advantage of this type of organic chip lies in its low power consumption. Because its operating mechanism is closer to that of a biological nervous system, fungal-based devices consume almost no energy in standby or inactive states, potentially offering significant energy efficiency and economic advantages for future computing devices.

Furthermore, compared to traditional electronic components that rely on rare metals, energy-intensive manufacturing processes, and are difficult to degrade, fungal-based devices are biodegradable, use readily available raw materials, and are inexpensive to produce, helping to reduce e-waste and promote sustainable development. While the concept of using fungi for computing is not new, this research is the first to systematically demonstrate how common edible fungi can be trained into memristor systems with practical functions and to explore their performance limits.

The applications of this technology are vast. Larger fungal networks could be used for edge computing and tasks in extreme environments, such as aerospace exploration; miniaturized devices hold promise for integration into wearable devices or autonomous robots, enhancing their sensing and responsiveness.

It might be hard to imagine that the mushrooms we commonly see on our dinner tables can, through clever design, transform into a key component in building brain-like computing systems—memristors. A memristor is a special circuit element that can "remember" past electrical current patterns; its "in-memory computing" perfectly mimics the workings of neurons and synapses in the brain. This "mushroom brain" consumes little energy, is biodegradable, uses readily available raw materials, and is naturally radiation-resistant. This research demonstrates new possibilities for the future of computing; computing devices don't have to be made of cold metal; they can be as flexible, green, organic, and efficient as living organisms.