this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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Engineers Gave a Mushroom a Robot Body And Let It Run Wild (www.sciencealert.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by geese_feces@hexbear.net to c/science@hexbear.net
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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

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[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"This kind of project is not just about controlling a robot," says Cornell bioroboticist Anand Mishra.

"It is also about creating a true connection with the living system. Because once you hear the signal, you also understand what's going on. Maybe that signal is coming from some kind of stresses. So you're seeing the physical response, because those signals we can't visualize, but the robot is making a visualization."

no-mouth-must-scream

[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I can't attune myself to feel kinship with any living beings unless they're showing it in ways that I perceive as communication, so I force them into expressing in those ways.

Just straight up mad scientist shit.