Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers put a culture of the edible mushroom species Pleurotus eryngii (also known as the king oyster mushroom) in control of a pair of vehicles, which can twitch and roll across a flat surface.

By applying algorithms based on the extracellular electrophysiology of P. eryngii mycelia and feeding the output into a microcontroller unit, the researchers used spikes of activity triggered by a stimulus – in this case, UV light – to toggle mechanical responses in two different kinds of mobile device.

https://youtu.be/5ZkkaM54RH8

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adk8019

  • Kuori [she/her]
    ·
    15 days ago

    my rule not to eat anything smarter than i am is steering me worryingly close to mushroomless waters

    • rayne [she/her]
      ·
      15 days ago

      They're fruits. If you're not eating the colony itself, I think it's okay.

      • Kuori [she/her]
        ·
        15 days ago

        They're fruits

        oh god it's cannibalism then; sin compounded upon sin

    • mathemachristian [he/him]
      ·
      15 days ago

      Sunflowers move towards the sun on their own, this isn't much different from that.