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Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey have come up with an unexpected way to produce electricity without using fossil fuels: a mushroom covered with bacteria. The "bionic mushroom" was advertised in the newspaper Nano Letters and has captured the imagination of the public due to its wacky creativity.
Bacteria have been of interest to energy researchers, generating oil spills, and generating electricity. However, the cyanobacteria in question has been difficult to work with because they can not survive for a long time. The breakthrough came as a topic for the bacterium. Mushrooms naturally have an ecosystem of bacteria living on them so they provide the perfect home for cyanobacteria to thrive.
The basis for the mushroom generator is the observation that the bacteria and fungi like mushrooms often live in a state of symbiosis where both lifeforms benefit each other. With the refinement of 3D printing technology, it is possible to produce tiny materials which interact with a microscopic scale. This means that bacterial cells could be affixed to the mushroom with a net of 3D printed that are spiraled over the mushroom cap. The combination of bacteria and mushroom enables a process called "photosynthetic bioelectricity generation," which is a fancy way of saying that when researchers find it, it produces a tiny amount of electricity.
As the amount of electricity is small, it would be required to have a practical scale. With several mushrooms wired together, enough electricity could be produced to light a small lamp. Researcher Dr. Sudeep Joshi, a postdoc in the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, told BBC News: "We are looking to connect all the mushrooms in series, in an array, and we are also looking to pack more bacteria together … These are the next steps, to optimize the bio-currents, to generate more electricity, to power a small LED. "
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