Honey holds potential for making brain-like computer chips

Honey might be a sweet solution for developing environmentally friendly components for neuromorphic computers, systems designed to mimic the neurons and synapses found in the human brain. Hailed by some as the future of computing, neuromorphic systems are much faster and use much less power than traditional computers. Washington State University engineers have demonstrated one way to make them more organic too. In a study published in Journal of Physics D, the researchers show that honey can be used to make a memristor, a component similar to a transistor that can not only process but also store data in memory. "This is a very small device with a simple structure, but it has very similar functionalities to a human neuron," said Feng Zhao, associate professor of WSU's School of Engineering and Computer Science and corresponding author on the study.