Image Source: Flickr - Button Mushrooms

Specialists searching for new types of sustainable power source have for quite some time been occupied with cyanobacteria, which are minor microorganisms that normally change the energy from the sunlight into electrical power. The issue, however, has been keeping cyanobacteria alive sufficiently long in order to accomplish something with the electrical power they deliver since they generally die rapidly on artificial surfaces.

In the quest for a superior facilitating surface for the culturing of cyanobacteria, specialists from the Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT) stumbled on mushrooms — all things considered, they (mushrooms) are home to different sorts of microorganisms — in addition to 3D– printed nanomaterials. And guess what the outcome of this accidental encountering is: "Bionic Mushrooms."

Feels Just Like Home

The SIT researchers explained, in a journal published on the internet, how the bionic mushrooms were invented.

To start with, they utilized a 3D printer to print an electronic ink stuffed with graphene nanoribbons onto the top of a white button mushroom in a branched pattern. At that point, they 3D printed a bio-ink containing the cyanobacteria over the graphene nanoribbons on the button mushroom in a spiral pattern.

Finally, Light was shone on the mushroom in order to initiate photosynthesis in the cyanobacteria. Wherever the two inks crossed, the graphene nanoribbons gathered the current delivered by the cyanobacteria.

The researchers discovered that the mushroom-facilitated cyanobacteria lived for a few days longer than those on the control materials, which were a (silicone and dead mushroom as suitable controls)[https://www.stevens.edu/news/bionic-mushrooms-fuse-nanotech-bacteria-and-fungi].

Essential Fungus

Though the researchers are presently unable to utilize the electricity presently generated from the bionic mushrooms due to the fact that it was insignificant, they do however trust that the fungi will serve as a critical step toward achieving valuable bionic cyanobacteria frameworks.

“With this work, we can imagine enormous opportunities for next-generation bio-hybrid applications,” Mannoor says. “For example, some bacteria can glow, while others sense toxins or produce fuel. By seamlessly integrating these microbes with nanomaterials, we could potentially realize many other amazing designer bio-hybrids for the environment, defense, healthcare, and many other fields.”

References
_{Bionic Mushrooms, Fuse Nanotech Bacteria and Fungi - Stevens Institute of Technology}

_{If you write STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) related posts, consider joining #steemSTEM on steemit chat or discord here. If you are from Nigeria, you may want to include the #stemng tag in your post. You can visit this blog by @stemng for more details.}

_{I'm a proud member of @promo-mentors where you get mentored and guided on how to make quality posts on steemit amongst other benefits. Do join us on discord. We anticipate your arrival.}

---