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BeowulfShaeffer t1_ixv5ski wrote

I’ve been using table coral and copper wire kits to make CPUs in Subnautica for years.

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Saucemanthegreat t1_ixv8jtd wrote

If you actually read the article, the actual thing they’re using this for is insulation in chips, replacing the plastic coating that is traditionally used. They aren’t making electrical components out of Ganoderma mushrooms, but rather using a part of the skin on the mushroom to replace a discardable film. This won’t make the products that much less long lasting, but will have an impact. They are looking to use it in short term use products like medical devices and nfc sending devices.

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rarz t1_ixupw6v wrote

I don't want my chips to degrade. Make them recycleable by all means. c_c

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4myoldGaffer t1_ixv57ht wrote

this should give those scalpers mushroom for a profit

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lunartree t1_ixvsz8c wrote

Hijacking this comment to say that's not what the article is talking about. These are normal plastic chips, but imagine if at a recycling facility they could use spores to biodegrade away the plastics and then recycle the metals.

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iRedditonFacebook t1_ixxmyp5 wrote

Where does it say that? it is about replacing insulation.

>The particular species of fungus is the Ganoderma lucidum, which grows on dead rotting wood in European mountains. As it reaches maturity, it creates a fibrous skin to protect its own substrate (the wood in this case) which if peeled off can instead protect microchips

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HunterXxX360 t1_ixycmmd wrote

Sounds like planned obsolescence to me. The worst thing for the silicon industry about silicon is: it doesn’t really degrade. With Moore‘s law alive and kicking the obsolescence came from new use cases and better performance. But without it we could use silicon for years or even decades.

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jbman42 t1_iy1ple3 wrote

It's very hard to make them perfectly recyclable because of how the materials are used, to begin with. A computer is the most cutting edge device you have in your house, with very sensitive parts that need to fulfill a wide array of tasks, and thus need a series of different parts that each require different materials. Even if you only take one component into consideration, there are still several subcomponents in there that need different materials to fulfill their roles. And the more different materials you need, the harder it is to recycle.

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D00MK0PF t1_ixunwig wrote

now the rgb craze makes more sense

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genuinecelticknott t1_ixv3ew8 wrote

Now your hardware can decompose at the same rate it becomes obsolete.

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Trextrev t1_ixxl7ph wrote

Nah these mushroom films will still last ten times longer than that lol.

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InstructionWorth4212 t1_ixveba4 wrote

From the article it appears that this is to replace the non recyclable plastics used to insulate chips currently. The fungus would not be used in the chips themselves and depending on how products are manufactured might even be a replaceable part grown from sustainable means.

Overall the article is pretty short and besides about the mushrooms there is not much beyond that

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_Abe_Froman_SKOC t1_ixuo0dj wrote

Yes, because biodegradable electrical components have worked so well in the past.

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2Punx2Furious t1_ixv1z89 wrote

I don't want my electrical components to be biodegradable, but saying something isn't good just because it hasn't worked in the past is just stupid.

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_Abe_Froman_SKOC t1_ixvdmnc wrote

I didn't say that. I just said that, thus far, biodegradable components in electronics have not worked out very well.

Reading comprehension is important.

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the_jungle_awaits t1_ixvinv1 wrote

As long as they don’t degrade while inside my PC I’m all for it lol.

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just_nobodys_opinion t1_ixuuuky wrote

Yeah those things weren't degrading quickly enough for businesses to make a profit. /s

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NXDIAZ1 t1_ixuyw7c wrote

This is a terrible idea. Is there really no way to make silocon and rare earth metals recyclable?

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Maxxorus t1_ixw02ee wrote

Read the fucking article. They're replacing certain components, not the actual silicon.

Stop reading titles and forming dumb opinions

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Cold_Turkey_Cutlet t1_ixx7fn6 wrote

Enraging isn't it? They just read a headline and spout off like "Oh I definitely know that the scientists at the Soft Matter Physics lab of Johannes Kepler University in Austria are MORONS. They didn't even think about how mushrooms ROT before they decided to make COMPUTER CHIPS WITH THEM? God I should probably run that whole lab... we'd on Mars by now!"

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2Punx2Furious t1_ixv277z wrote

You don't need to recycle silicon, that's cheap and abundant enough. The rare earth metals, yes.

Anyway, hopefully this isn't a technology for commercial/consumer use, but for very specific cases, where you actually need the electronics to degrade after some time.

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ISuckAtFunny t1_ixv9gdv wrote

Welcome to the new era of clandestine mushroom computers for international spy agencies

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CaterpillarReal7583 t1_ixvb91y wrote

Look Im not going to read the article but I assume it doesn’t fall apart in 3 years.

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sxtigon t1_ixv747a wrote

Its a temp pc! You can use it until you cant! :D

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temp225566 t1_ixv885v wrote

All we need are throw away computers

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skittlesmcgee33 t1_ixvbcat wrote

Isn’t it currently just made with sand? Why do we need it to be biodegradable?

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IceFire2050 t1_ixvgueu wrote

Do we want biodegradeable computer parts?

I dont know if the idea of parts of electronics rotting away sounds like a good idea

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soucy t1_ixvjzo2 wrote

"A major leap forward for planned obsolescence." -- Every toxic tech corporation (probably)

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hdksjabsjs t1_ixvncl6 wrote

Gives a whole new meaning to “bit rot”

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littleMAS t1_ixvxs6r wrote

We are recyclable, but we keep trying to be immortal.

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Jay_Bird_75 t1_ixw266p wrote

If you keep the “chip” in a cool, damp and dark place will it grow more cores..? 😁

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corpseluvver t1_ixw88a2 wrote

Kennett Square PA was this close to becoming the next silicon valley...

e: gonna throw an /s on here for good measure, in case anyone thought I was dead serious

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davidmlewisjr t1_ixwvpvu wrote

In the never-ending quest to secure funding for research projects, people are proving that you can get money for almost anything that even seems novel.

Do you know we can make oil for internal combustion engines from cow farts? No, Really, It’s a thing, actually, honestly…🤯 🖖🏼 👋

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Dramatic_Impression1 t1_ixxafh9 wrote

As an undergraduate researcher working on a similar project, i’m glad to see that people are interested in this

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Trextrev t1_ixxlriw wrote

We need more of this research in every field. We live in a throw away society yet most of our crap will out live us, and even while “breaking down” is becoming pervasive everywhere (micro plastics).

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squishles t1_ixy59p9 wrote

That's cool and all, but probably not going to matter at all as long as our primary method of dealing with e-waste is ship it to some country without environmental regulations for a 6 year old kid to burn in a pile for the copper...

like I guess the mushroom might be nicer on the kids lungs. The big one you'd probably want to deal with is the circuit board substrate.

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GWtech t1_ixydjyi wrote

Great. So now when you buy a computer it'll Fall apart just like those grocery bags when you put the cans in and they break because they're so biodegradable they start to fall apart immediately.

Not to mention the fact that they'll be able to sell a whole lot more computers if your computer start failing as they degrade.

I still have an old IBM pc. It was created before they took the lead out of solder so the solder doesn't create spikes which cause short circuits in electronic devices and cause them to fail. Theoretically except for the hard drive that computer could probably be running in another 200 years.

There's something nice about owning something that actually might last forever.

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GWtech t1_ixydp6i wrote

Remember when they started talking about biodegradable plastics being the greatest thing? So suddenly instead of a milk jug floating around the ocean for a thousand years that milk jug is going to break down into tiny tiny pieces. Well it turned out that microplastics were a whole lot worse than having The milk jug floating around for a thousand years. You could easily grab the milk jug and put it in the landfill or do something else with it but those tiny microplastic particles are getting into fish and you're eating them and they're getting into everything in the ecosystem and they're leaching their chemical and often hormone mimicking properties into life everywhere.

We have to be careful about biodegrading things that are not of a natural origin. Making it smaller doesn't mean it's going away. In many cases it's better to have it in a big thing that doesn't deteriorate that you can compress and put in a relatively small space underground. Like a garbage dump.

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GWtech t1_ixydxxv wrote

When you been reading consumer scientific publications and websites like I have for 20 or 30 years you see the same stories recycled over and over. And every new generation that comes up thinks it's a new innovation. The only thing that I can remember is actually progressed greatly and this includes stories like biodegradability and flying cars and cancer cures is actually solar panels. Solar panels are one of the few things that have actually increased and changed in such a huge degree over that. Of time as to make a huge difference. I'll add to that battery technology. You have small devices that can run for long times independently because battery technology is improved probably 100 times in the past 20 years.

But all these stories about biodegradability and cancer cures and new fuel sources from recondensing all kinds of waste etc etc and wind power and everything else and unfortunately the cancer cures that are going to be derived from your immune system learning to attack cancer rather than body cells well their stories that are recycled over and over and apparently continue to generate money from venture capitalists who I guess didn't see the same story 10 years ago.

That's just a little long-term experience perspective. I remember the molar flying car from the 1980s that appeared on the cover of popular science or popular mechanics magazine once a year. It always sold magazines. We still don't and never will have flying cars because no one wants a million people flying over your head in their own personal car.

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Weirdautogenerate t1_ixyo3ji wrote

So what you’re telling me is these aren’t pancakes?

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Captain_N1 t1_iy6zrvz wrote

UM, you dont want computer parts to degrade. You want them to actually work for longer then 20 years.... Im tired of this throw away crap that is made.

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