Spinach is no longer just a superfood: By embedding leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.
This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic systems into plants, an approach that the researchers call “plant nanobionics.”
“The goal of plant nanobionics is to introduce nanoparticles into the plant to give it non-native functions,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the leader of the research team.
In this case, the plants were designed to detect chemical compounds known as nitroaromatics, which are often used in landmines and other explosives. When one of these chemicals is present in the groundwater sampled naturally by the plant, carbon nanotubes embedded in the plant leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be read with an infrared camera. The camera can be attached to a small computer similar to a smartphone, which then sends an email to the user.
“This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier,” says Strano, who believes plant power could also be harnessed to warn of pollutants and environmental conditions such as drought.
Read more at MIT News
Announcements
Job Offers
- Senior Agronomist/Horticulturist and Agronomy/Horticulture Manager
- Growers & Assistant Growers
- Plant Biologist
- Ripening Officer Bananas / Exotics
- Grower and Nurser
- Farm Manager
- Floriculture Production Planning Manager
- Agricultural Mechanic / Crop Sprayer Operator
- Technical Services Manager
- Quality Controller
"Tweeting Growers"
Top 5 -yesterday
- "A generational change is going on in Italy's horti sector"
- Schartner's mall-size greenhouse in Exeter still on hold after judge's ruling
- Strawberry picking robots aim to save California growers
- Monitoring thrips with image technology unique, benificial insects soon to be counted digitally
- Brazil: $1 mln investment in wasabi greenhouse production
Top 5 -last week
- Top tips for growing lettuce in a greenhouse
- UK: Grower reduces greenhouse temperature by more than 6°C during heatwave with no cooling, fog systems
- Taking the wisdom from indoor farming and bringing it into greenhouses
- New packaging for hydroponic fertilizer launched
- "Kawaguchi tomato variety good option for consumer, but also good for the grower"
Top 5 -last month
Receive the daily newsletter in your email for free | Click here
Other news in this sector:
- 2022-08-16 Cloth washer thoroughly cleans shredded cloth during crop changes
- 2022-08-15 "A generational change is going on in Italy's horti sector"
- 2022-08-15 New traceability technology working group launches
- 2022-08-15 Comparison of supplemental LED top- and interlighting for year-round production of cherry tomato
- 2022-08-11 UF researchers find genes responsible for several flavor compounds in strawberries
- 2022-08-10 Taking the wisdom from indoor farming and bringing it into greenhouses
- 2022-08-08 A mission to discover greenhouse robots in Japan
- 2022-08-08 Low-cost smart meter ready for farmers and agricultural partners
- 2022-07-22 "By adding spray booms, our roof washer became a real 2-in-1-machine"
- 2022-07-22 What is the added value of Software-as-a-Service for growers?
- 2022-07-22 "Horto Professional makes vertical farming customizable"
- 2022-07-20 'Easy-to-use growth model' combines weight and light
- 2022-07-19 "North America is a strong growth market for automation solutions"
- 2022-07-15 "I don't believe in automating just to automate"
- 2022-07-13 Greenhouse software tool helps growers calculate light distribution of growing facility
- 2022-07-12 Fluence and HAS University partner to explore dynamic lighting strategies
- 2022-07-11 Monitoring growing conditions and tracking strawberries with IoT apps
- 2022-07-11 “Autonomous Growing is helping us to achieve more”
- 2022-07-11 Trolleys help growers in hot climates deal with labor shortages
- 2022-07-06 Robots - the perfect worker when there are severe staff shortages?
