Honey has the potential to produce brain-like computer chips

The British Journal of Physics D published a study using honey to create a memristor - a transistor-like component that can not only process but also store data in a computer chip.

"This is a very small device with a simple structure, but it is a very small device with a simple structure," said Feng Zhao Associate Professor in the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University (WSU) and the study's author. have very similar functions to human neurons.

Honey could be a great solution for developing eco-friendly components for computer chips, designed to mimic neurons found in the human brain.

Mr. Zhao and Mr. Brandon Sueoka, the study's first author and WSU graduate student, created the memristors by treating honey to a solid form and sandwiching it between two metal electrodes, creating structurally similar to human neurons.

WSU engineers have created memory chips out of honey on a microscopic scale, so they're about the size of a human hair.

The team led by Mr. Zhao plans to grow them on the nanoscale, about 1/1,000th of a human hair. Simultaneously, combine millions or even billions of honey nanofibers together to form a complete polymorphic neural computing system.

The human brain has more than 100 billion neurons with more than 1 trillion synapses. Every neuron can process and store data, which makes the brain much more efficient than a traditional computer.

Several companies, including Intel and IBM, have released polymorphic neural chips equivalent to more than 100 million "neurons" per chip, but this number is still far from the actual number in the brain.

"Honey doesn't spoil easily. It has a very low moisture content, so bacteria cannot survive in it. This means that these computer chips will be very stable and reliable for a while. very long," said Mr. Zhao.

The honey-based memory chips developed at WSU withstand the lower heat generated by the nervous systems that don't get hot like traditional computers.

Mr. Zhao said: "When we want to dispose of devices that use computer chips made from honey, we can easily dissolve them in water. Because of these special properties, honey is very useful to creating biological nervous systems that are regenerative and self-destructive".