Just for illustrative purposes. Credit: AI-generated by ZME Science/Midjourney.

You can grow a computer on your kitchen counter. Well, sort of. That’s the radical implication of new research from The Ohio State University, where scientists have turned humble shiitake mushrooms into living electronic devices that can remember information*.*

In their new study, psychiatrist and research scientist John LaRocco and colleagues describe a fungus-based computing system that mimics how neurons process information.

“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,” said LaRocco. “That’s something that can be a huge potential computational and economic advantage.”

The Rise of the Mushristor

Mycelial memristors connected to a circuit. Credit: PLOS One, 2025.

Memristors — short for “memory resistors” — are the brainlike workhorses of neuromorphic computing, capable of learning from previous electrical states. Traditional versions are made of silicon or metal oxides, born in costly foundries and dependent on rare-earth minerals. The Ohio State team decided to replace all that with fungi. Because why not?

Specifically, they turned to shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes), known for their resilience and peculiar sensitivity to electrical stimuli. So, the researchers grew the fungi in Petri dishes filled with farro, wheat germ, and hay until the mycelium formed a dense white mat. Then they dried the samples in sunlight, rehydrated them just enough to restore conductivity, and connected them to an Arduino-powered circuit. What they got was a memristor — a sort of tiny bioelectronic brain cell — that could remember and respond to electrical patterns.

“We would connect electrical wires and probes at different points on the mushrooms because distinct parts of it have different electrical properties,” said LaRocco. “Depending on the voltage and connectivity, we were seeing different performances.”

At low frequencies, the fungal chips switched states at up to 5,850 signals per second with about 90% accuracy. At slower voltages, that number climbed to 95%, rivaling the speed and precision of early silicon-based memristors. Like human synapses, the mushrooms could “learn” to adjust their resistance when stimulated repeatedly.

Nature’s Circuit Board

This isn’t the first time scientists have tried to merge mushrooms and machines. Mycologists and engineers have long been fascinated by mycelium, or the threadlike underground network that allows fungi to share nutrients and signals. It’s self-repairing, adaptable, and can transmit tiny electrical impulses that look a lot like neural firing.

But Ohio State’s work goes further: the researchers didn’t just observe electrical chatter — they trained it.

Mushroom mycelium.

The paper describes a setup where each fungal disk acted as a node in a circuit, capable of volatile memory. Dehydration turned out to be key: drying the mushrooms made them durable while preserving their electronic traits. “We obtained experimental validation that dehydration can preserve the observed properties in a previously ‘programmed’ sample,” the team wrote in their study.

And shiitake fungi come with some remarkable extras. They’re radiation-resistant, thanks in part to a compound called lentinan, which helps them endure oxidative stress. So, that opens the door to applications beyond Earth. “Shiitake has exhibited radiation resistance, suggesting its viability for aerospace applications,” the authors noted.

Beyond that, the environmental case for fungal electronics is equally compelling. Traditional semiconductor fabrication devours energy and produces electronic waste laced with heavy metals. Mycelium, by contrast, grows at room temperature and decomposes naturally.

“Society has become increasingly aware of the need to protect our environment and ensure that we preserve it for future generations,” said Qudsia Tahmina, a co-author and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State. “So that could be one of the driving factors behind new bio-friendly ideas like these.”

The cost is another advantage. “Everything you’d need to start exploring fungi and computing could be as small as a compost heap and some homemade electronics, or as big as a culturing factory with pre-made templates,” LaRocco said. “All of them are viable with the resources we have in front of us now.”

Limitations and What’s Possible

Still, let’s be frank. You’re not gonna run everyday apps on mushrooms, unless those apps are in your head and the mushrooms are ‘magic’.

The researchers are realistic about the limitations. These prototypes are large and slow compared to commercial chips. Shrinking fungal memristors down to nanoscale will take years of engineering and experimentation. Yet even in their current form, they’re a proof of concept for something astonishing: computers that grow, adapt, and decay like living things.

Imagine wearables made from biodegradable circuits that don’t pollute once discarded, or spacecraft electronics that heal themselves after radiation exposure. Mycelial systems could one day power edge computing, autonomous machines, and even artificial brains that evolve with use. I’ve heard of crazier things.

“Fungal systems have lower power requirements, lighter weights, faster switching speeds, and lower industrial overheads than conventional devices,” the authors conclude in their paper. “The future of computing could be fungal.”

The findings appeared in the journal PLOS One.