Scientists Grew a Mushroom Into This Robot to Act as Its Brain

Cornell researchers built a four-legged "biohybrid" walking robot that uses living fungal mycelia as its control system. According to a Cornell press release, the team grew mycelia into the robot's electronics so it could sense and respond to its environment. The paper, published in the journal Science Robotics, describes three tasks: walking and rolling, changing gait in response to ultraviolet light, and overriding the native mycelial signal. The researchers predict uses in agriculture and a better understanding of how mycelium works.