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Spore Drive incoming? (www.independent.co.uk)

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17039986

Engineers gave a mushroom a robot body and let it run wild

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.

But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and the University of Florence in Italy took steps to find out, putting 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.

Through a series of experiments, the researchers showed it was possible to use the mushroom's electrophysiological activity as a means of translating environmental cues into directives, which could, in turn, be used to drive a mechanical device's movements.

"By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment," says senior researcher Rob Shepherd, a materials scientist at Cornell.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah, but that’s not really the same thing. That’s more following basic programming: get the ant to the top of the leaf. This feels different to me.

Not that cordyceps isn’t also creepy…

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

The idea that it mind controls the ant into its death is creepy as fuck to me. It’s this kind of thing that, if it ever made the jump to infecting humans, would probably wipe out the species.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Sure, but now imagine it can run toward you in order to infect you.

this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
54 points (100.0% liked)

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