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Spinach is one of the healthiest vegetables on the market, full of essential vitamins and minerals including iron, manganese, magnesium, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, and now, Vitamin G … mail. (Sorry.)
Scientists at MIT have trained spinach to use email, and this technological advancement could have implications for the monitoring of climate change.
Using nanotechnology, the engineers have transformed spinach into sensors capable of detecting explosive materials.
This means that the spinach can detect the presence of nitroaromatics, a compound often found in explosives like landmines, in groundwater.
When this is present, carbon nanotubes within the plant emit a signal, which is then read by an infrared camera that can send an email alert to the scientists.
The study is part of an emerging field of research called ‘plant nanobionics’, which involves installing engineering electronic components and systems into plants to imbue them with new, sometimes science-fiction-esque capabilities.
“Plants are very good analytical chemists,” Professor Michael Strano, who led the research, explained to Euronews . “They have an extensive root network in the soil, are constantly sampling groundwater, and have a way to self-power the transport of that water up into the leaves.”
“This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier.”
The green implications
Though the experiment was designed to detect explosives, the research could be more broadly applied to enable plants to detect pollution or other environmental conditions, which could prove beneficial for monitoring the impact of climate change in the future.
“Plants are very environmentally responsive,” Strano says. “They know that there is going to be a drought long before we do.
“They can detect small changes in the properties of soil and water potential. If we tap into those chemical signalling pathways, there is a wealth of information to access.”
