By taking the vascular system of living roses and directly merging them with both analog and digital electronic circuits, researchers from Linköping University in Sweden have developed the first-ever cyborg plant, officials from the institution announced on Friday.
Professor Magnus Berggren of the Linköping Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE) and his colleagues were able to fabricate wires, digital logic circuits, and even display elements in plants that they believe could lead to new developments in the fields of organic electronics and botany. Their findings were published last week in the journal Science Advances.
“The roots, stems, leaves, and vascular circuitry of higher plants are responsible for conveying the chemical signals that regulate growth and functions,” the study authors explained. “From a certain perspective, these features are analogous to the contacts, interconnections, devices, and wires of discrete and integrated electronic circuits.”
While there have been several previous attempts to augment a plant’s functions with electronic materials, this marks the first time that biology and technology have been directly merged in this manner, Berggren’s team added. They used the xylem, leaves, veins, and signals of the plant as a template to create the four key components of a circuit in their so-called cyborg plant.
Giving a new meaning to the term ‘power plant’
While the researchers explain that plants are complex organisms that depend on the transport of ionic signals and hormones to perform essential functions, they operate on a slower time scale, which makes them more difficult to study and interact with. Using technology, however, electric signals could be used to augment these natural chemical and biological processes.
By integrating electronics into plants—using them to either control or interface with chemical pathways—the scientists hope to create fuel cells that can harvest energy from photosynthesis, as well as find an alternative method of optimizing plants that would reduce or eliminate the need to genetically modify them.
“Previously, we had no good tools for measuring the concentration of various molecules in living plants,” study co-author Ove Nilsson, of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, said in a statement. “Now we’ll be able to influence the concentration of the various substances in the plant that regulate growth and development. Here, I see great possibilities for learning more.”
“As far as we know, there are no previously published research results regarding electronics produced in plants. No one’s done this before,” added Professor Berggren. “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.”
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Feature Image: Laboratory of Organic Electronics
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