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A team of researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey has created a "bionic mushroom" that can produce electricity without the use of fossil fuels. The fungus is covered with cyanobacteria, tiny organisms found around the world that turn sunlight into electrical current.
Scientists have long wondered whether cyanobacteria could be exploited as an alternative source of energy, the main obstacle being that organisms can not survive on artificial surfaces. Mechanical engineers Manu Mannoor and Sudeep Joshi of the Stevens Institute realized that mushrooms already harbor many other forms of microbial life and could therefore provide the right environment (nutrients, moisture, pH and temperature) for the development of cyanobacteria.
Engineers attached white mushroom caps purchased in a grocery store to cyanobacteria and 3D printed graphene nanoribbons. The BBC reported that several cyanobacteria – covered fungi, linked together, generated enough electricity to light a small lamp. Scientists published their findings in the journal Nano Letters.
"Currently, we use cyanobacteria from the pond, but you can manipulate them genetically … to produce higher photocurrents," Joshi told the BBC. "It's a new start; we call it artificial symbiosis. If we do more research in this area, we can really move that field forward by putting in place some kind of effective green technology. "
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