logo
welcome
CNN

CNN

Scientists build a robot that is part fungus, part machine | CNN

CNN
Summary
Nutrition label

86% Informative

Researchers grew king oyster mushrooms in the lab from a simple kit ordered online.

They cultivated the mushroom’s threadlike structures or mycelium, which can form networks that can sense, communicate and transport nutrients.

Mycelium produces small electrical signals and can be connected to electrodes.

Researchers harnessed electrical signals made by the fungus and its sensitivity to light.

Fungi -controlled technology could have applications in agriculture, Shepherd said.

The researchers operated the rolling robot without a tether connecting it to the electrical hardware.

"Truly tetherfree biohybrid robots are a challenge in the field," Webster-Wood said.

A lecturer at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom said that such technologies could disrupt the ecosystem.