Team develops 'electronic plants'

[Audio]

Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have created analog and digital electronics circuits inside living plants. The group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE), under the leadership of Professor Magnus Berggren, have used the vascular system of living roses to build key components of electronic circuits.

The article featured in the journal Science Advances demonstrates wires, digital logic, and even displays elements - fabricated inside the plants - that could develop new applications for organic electronics and new tools in plant science.

Professor Berggren adds, "Now we can really start talking about 'power plants' - we can place sensors in plants and use the energy formed in the chlorophyll, produce green antennas, or produce new materials. Everything occurs naturally, and we use the plants' own very advanced, unique systems."

Read more at: Team develops 'electronic plants'

 

[jamahir]

Professor Berggren adds, "Now we can really start talking about 'power plants' - we can place sensors in plants and use the energy formed in the chlorophyll, produce green antennas,

that reminded me of a alien film i had seen years ago... some youth trap a alien whose colleagues had trapped the youth years ago... the youth have strapped the unconscious alien on a table and i think proceed to cut him up... the alien later releases himself and out of his chest comes a biological-like antenna that sends a emergency help message.

Augmenting plants with electronic functionality would make it possible to combine electric signals with the plant's own chemical processes. Controlling and interfacing with chemical pathways in plants could pave the way to photosynthesis-based fuel cells, sensors and growth regulators, and devices that modulate the internal functions of plants.

in say five years, maybe this research will be able to construct a microphone within a plant or can have a plant secrete a poison that can be released by external radio signal.

will we be able to trust plants??

somehow i am reminded of the "dune" books.

@Aminroop , a interesting line of research.

 

[Levina]

@Aminroop , a interesting line of research.

Thanks for the tag.

Can fabricating digital logic in plants mutate its DNA?
can that be harmful?

 

[jamahir]

Can fabricating digital logic in plants mutate its DNA?
can that be harmful?

good point.

constant low-level electric currents flowing through stems and leaves... maybe.

 

[Levina]

good point.

constant low-level electric currents flowing through stems and leaves... maybe.

Anything artificial brings a change in the DNA. Infact it's very sensitive- even music has the power to alter its information.

 

[jamahir]

Anything artificial brings a change in the DNA. Infact it's very sensitive-

yes, plants are both delicate ( internally ) and robust ( externally ).

i missed out saying that the digital circuits can have materials ( like the polymer mentioned ) that can leach into the cells aided by the electric current and can cause dna change.

even music has the power to alter its information.

has that been known to work??