Scientists have again decided to turn to nature for the future of computing and specifically to mushrooms and then came up with the idea of making a computer chip out of mushrooms.
Mushrooms For Future Sustainable Electronics
A few weeks ago we saw the world’s first wooden transistor which was an impressive breakthrough for a potential future technology, but now scientists have decided to look into mushrooms as another form of natural computing. In a paper published on ScienceAdvances (Via ZDNet) researchers at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria discovered the usage of mushrooms to produce a much more sustainable way of constructing computer chips. The mushroom would be used as a base material for chips which would allow for a much more biodegradable device and in turn could make a huge impact on E-waste.
A Possible Future?
I’m not going to pretend like understand the science behind this so I am entirely unable to put this into layman’s terms. Though supposedly the mycelium skin that they use has a strong ability to keep out moisture and UV light meaning it can last for a few hundred years which is less damaging to the earth than the materials used in current mainboards and computer chips.
At the moment these little technological breakthroughs don’t mean much to us but its an interesting look into what we may see in future computing.
