News World's First Wood Transistor Chops Out at 1 Hz

[brandonjclark]

I find it interesting that you have such expansive knowledge of our galaxy. Remind me to ask you about that, another time.

Wanna see my spaceship?

 

[MoxNix]

This isn't a wood transistor it's a piece of wood with child's homemade science project with a transistor inside it that's extremely bulky and incredibly slow.

 

[LinuxDevice]

What "future work and applications"?! This is totally useless. Clearly some people have entirely too much free time and resources at their disposal.

Smaller junctions are more subject to bit flips from cosmic rays. We wouldn't need ECC RAM if not for that. Then there are also bit flips in the silicon itself, e.g., in the processor registers. Basically you need a larger junction to be less vulnerable. When the space shuttle was flying it had several i386 processors, but at the time, other CPU technology was far faster; however, it was the older tech which was more immune to radiation hazards. Mostly I'd agree this is probably just something interesting, but how do wood junctions (with their large sizes) survive in comparison in a location of high radiation? I could easily see some possibility that if there is any advantage for wood, e.g., in space, that this wouldn't be just a exercise in novelty.

Then there is cloning and genetic engineering. Assuming the chemistry of such a junction is understood, what if someone manages to make grow-able computers? It kind of gets interesting. Or at least good fiction even if nothing ever comes of it...image a big tree growing in space that turns sentient

Just a quick edit: We also now know a scientific basis for Groot!

 

[bit_user]

Wanna see my spaceship?

That feels like an offer I should probably decline.
: D

 

[klavs]

The real breakthrough is going to be when someone figures out how to grow these, and use them to genetically engineer circuits directly into plants.

Like fungi

 

[sam buddy]

To get enough compute density and efficiency into plants, I think the transistor isn't a viable technology. You'd probably need to approach it from the perspective of trying to create a plant version of a neuron.

The thing people tend not to appreciate about plants is that they're able to sense much about their environment and surroundings. We know this, because they react to a wide range of changes in a variety of different ways. Embedding circuitry into them could help us tap into their sensor network, so we can use them to monitor their surroundings. This could be used for environmental monitoring.

Of course, I was only joking, just in a sci-fi way. Your post about nature figuring ways to adapt and evolve made me think what if...
As in, what if we found a way to implant such a transistor to a living plant and, provided this new stimuli, the plant was able to imitate it, evolve it, and then further improve it and even grow it!
As I said, and as much as I'd like to think of it as even remotely possible, it's science fiction. Can anyone make a film out of it, please?!

The real breakthrough is going to be when someone figures out how to grow these, and use them to genetically engineer circuits directly into plants.

That could make my sci-fi joke a reality! Seriously though, that would be a major breakthrough.

Like fungi

Fungi look quite promising, indeed.
Funny, due to the subject of this article, how the fungi producing a pigment that could be used as an alternative to silicon are actually wood eaters!
https://science.oregonstate.edu/IMP...-pigment-shows-promise-semiconductor-material

 

[Endymio]

what if we found a way to implant such a transistor to a living plant and, provided this new stimuli, the plant was able to imitate it, evolve it, and then further improve it and even grow it!
As I said, and as much as I'd like to think of it as even remotely possible, it's science fiction.

Scientists have discovered that living creatures have already found a way to grow and evolve such switching transistors. We call the resultant structure a "neuron". Luckily, no creature has managed to use these yet to demonstrate provable intelligence.

it occurred to me to look up the composition of asteroids. According to Wikipedia, 75% of asteroids are carbonaceous or C-type.

Silicon is the 8th most abundant element in the universe, slightly behind carbon, true, but orders of magnitude more prevalent than complex organic molecules like cellulose and lignin.

 

[sam buddy]

Scientists have discovered that living creatures have already found a way to grow and evolve such switching transistors. We call the resultant structure a "neuron". Luckily, no creature has managed to use these yet to demonstrate provable intelligence.

I was referring specifically to living plants, not animals (unless a plant can be considered a creature).
Plants (and fungi, too, since they were mentioned), do not have neurons.

 

[Endymio]

I was referring specifically to living plants, not animals (unless a plant can be considered a creature).
Plants (and fungi, too, since they were mentioned), do not have neurons.

Not neurons, no, but certain plants do have cells which exhibit the transistor-like switching behavior you mentioned in your original post:

Abstract
"Electrical excitability and signalling, frequently associated with rapid responses to environmental stimuli, are well known in some algae and higher plants. The presence of electrical signals, such as action potentials (AP), in both animal and plant cells suggested that plant cells, too, make use of ion channels to transmit information over long distances..."

Electrical signals and their physiological significance in plants - PubMed

Electrical excitability and signalling, frequently associated with rapid responses to environmental stimuli, are well known in some algae and higher plants. The presence of electrical signals, such as action potentials (AP), in both animal and plant cells suggested that plant cells, too, make...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov