Electricity Generating Bionic Mushrooms – Latest Discovery By Scientists
Finding clean tactics to generate energy is a priority for scientists eager to reduce the planet’s reliance on fossil fuels. In a breakthrough discovery, a group of Indian researchers in the US say they’ve found a means to create environmentally friendly energy using sterile mushrooms covered in bacteria.
Yes, you heard it right. A regular mushroom has been used to create green electricity by a group of Scientists. Manu Mannoor and Sudeep Joshi are the research behind this research who are from the Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey. In words of the researchers this is a best example of “engineered symbiosis” between two different genre – living organisms and nonliving substances.
Using 3d printing technology Stacks of cyanobacteria were attached to a normal button mushroom along with an electrode network to harness the power that they produce. Presence of cynobacteria is very common. Several research has been performed to harness the energy produced by it to make electricity but the constraint factor is the cyanobacteria cannot thrive for a longer duration on artificial, non- living surfaces. The Bionic mushroom offers great conditions for the bacteria to survive & thrive. Perfect
combination of nutrition, temperature and moisture is being provided by the bionic mushrooms which helped the cyanobacteria to thrive for a couple of days more then earlier surfaces tested.The results of the above study was published in Nano Letters journal. This discovery could be a turning point in a hustle to battle the drastic climatic change caused by the traditional electricity generating sources. The only concern now is how to use these “Bionic mushrooms” to generate higher amount of electricity. The current model only generates a small amount of bio-electricity. Further experiments are being conducted by connecting a series of such enhanced mushrooms to power a lamp.