(bright techno music) - [Narrator] When it comes to computers, humans have an insatiable need for speed.

Yet with our current designs, we're starting to approach some fundamental limits on how fast they can get.

(bright techno music) Well, what if there was a different kind of computer, one that ran faster, used less energy, and all the while, cutback on pollution from electronic waste?

Well, that's "All Science.

No Fiction."

(bright whimsical music) It's probably one of the weirder things you'll see in a science lab, especially in a lab making computer parts.

- It's just processed store-bought honey.

It's off the shelf, a little cute bear, so we can put it in photos.

- [Narrator] But for Zoe Templin and Mehedi Tanim, this honey is key.

- [Mehedi] Because it is cheap and it is easily accessible to everyone.

- [Narrator] It also has natural chemical properties that make it a promising foundation for a new kind of environmentally-friendly computer component being developed in the Pacific Northwest.

- Electronics in general produce so much toxic waste.

(bright music) Like, it really is a devastating amount of electronic waste that occurs.

- [Narrator] The world produces about 50 million tons of electronic waste per year.

Only 20% is recycled, meaning the other 80% ends up in landfills.

Using honey instead of materials like silicon and computers would make recycling easier and less toxic, because honey breaks down in water.

- I would love to see this become a stepping stone to having electronically clean waste and actually getting organic materials out into your phone, into commercial use.

- [Narrator] The computer part the team is building is something relatively new in the world of electronics, it's called a memristor.

Memristor is a portmanteau of the words memory and resistor, both essential for computers.

Honey has the chemical characteristics needed to make memristors work.

- So they have big molecule chains in the material, and we need those molecule chains in order for us to make our devices.

- [Narrator] The team also focused on honey because it's stable and doesn't spoil.

And unlike traditional computer materials, producing it actually benefits the environment.

- [Zoe] We are going to drop honey on it.

- [Narrator] Templin uses a centrifuge to spin the honey into a thin, even layer.

- [Zoe] It's thinner than our hair.

- [Narrator] She'll make the memristor by sandwiching the honey between two metal electrodes.

- You have metal, insulator, metal.

(machine beeping) - [Narrator] The memristor's combination of memory and electricity resistance is unique in electronics, but there's another place where this combo is quite common, in our brains.

Our brains are full of nerve cells called neurons, and when we learn, our neurons create connections between each other.

The points where the neurons connect are synapsis.

When we hear a new piece of information, a small bridge is built across the synapse.

The bridge is our memory.

The more we hear the information repeated, the more robust that memory-bridge becomes.

- Our neurons and the synapse, they process data and they store data at the same time.

- [Narrator] This dual purpose is a huge deal and helps make our brains the most efficient computers on the planet.

The team's memristor works the same way.

It builds bridges through the honey when exposed to certain levels of electricity.

That's the data processing.

When the electricity stops flowing, the bridge remains intact.

That's the memory.

If you reverse the flow of electricity, the memory is wiped clean.

- We are building systems of memory that are as efficient as how the brain stores memory.

- So we need to basically test to write data into the memory.

Then after that, we erase data.

- [Narrator] The test will show whether their honey-based memristor is able to learn and store memory like our synapses.

- Mehedi, I think you need to move the probe a little bit.

No contact.

Oh, there we go.

- [Narrator] They'll be able to track the honey-memristor's performance through a readout on the computer.

They power up the probes, and the graph shows the bridge forming through the honey.

- [Feng] So now the data is written in the memory, then what we need is to erase the data.

- [Narrator] They reverse the flow of electricity.

- [Feng] Basically want to burn the bridge.

- [Narrator] The bridge breaks down.

- (claps) Beautiful.

This proves our honey device is a memory.

- [Narrator] So if you have a computer component that mimics a brain cell, could you put a bunch of them together and get a computer that mimics a brain?

The answer is yes.

- Right now our device simulate single neuron, single synapse, but we want to integrate those devices together and then this will behave more like our brain.

- [Narrator] This is the idea behind neuromorphic computing, a new revolution in computer design.

- It's a building block, like, this is a synapse from my brain.

So by combining millions of device like this, then I can build a neuromorphic chip, which can actually do the computation that a supercomputer can do, but within 100 times faster and using 1,000 time less energy.

- [Narrator] Pretty much every computer we use is based on a design that's 80 years old: the von Neumann architecture.

(bright electronic music) In this design, the part of the computer that processes information is separate from the part that stores it.

- This conventional computing systems consumes a tremendous amount of energy.

They require time, so they are slower.

(gentle bright music) - [Narrator] Neuromorphic computers solve this bottleneck in part by having the processor and storage all in one place.

- I want my research to provide a solution.

- [Narrator] That is what the team is doing.

By developing a biodegradable computer component made of honey for a computer system that's more energy efficient than any we've ever seen, the team is taking computers into a faster and cleaner new age.

- I'm actually extremely fortunate to have been raised and grown up in the Pacific Northwest that cares about the environment to this level where I can do research that could truly help the environment in a way that really hasn't been explored before.

(bright gentle music) (upbeat electronic music) (scientists laughing) - [Narrator] We don't need a supercomputer to figure out that "All Science.

No Fiction" wouldn't be possible without the support of OPB members, thanks.

And don't miss out on any of OPD's science, outdoors, and arts programs by subscribing to "OPB Insider" at opb.org/allscience.

(upbeat electronic music) - Are you good?

- Print it, Jess.