Peter Parker and Spider-Man, Bruce Banner and his alter-ego Hulk, Fantastic 4… If you trace the origins of many comic book superheroes, you’ll find that their journeys start very similar. , radiation, ingestion of substances, or other forms of chance along the way, are ultimately endowed with supernatural abilities.
It’s no coincidence that we started this article by remembering them since the news. MIT Scientists Are Turning Spinach Into Explosives Detection Sensors It reminded me of all those fictional characters. The plants were modified by implanting carbon nanotube devices in their leaves that could detect compounds in antipersonnel landmines and other types of landmines, the researchers said.
This given force works as follows. When one of these chemicals is present in groundwater naturally collected by plants, carbon nanotubes embedded in the leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be read by an infrared camera. This camera is connected to a mobile device and ultimately sends an alert to the user.
This is one of the first demonstrations of electronic system integration into the plant. This approach plant nanobionics In other words, superplant engineering is becoming more and more important. But what is it all about?
Plants that can regenerate altered soil?
plant nanobionics A branch of science dedicated to embedding nanoparticles and structures into plants, thereby providing them with functions otherwise unattainable. Experts say this is an undeveloped branch of biology that will lead us to a point of no return in the future.
the truth is that Great expectations are placed on plant nanobionics to solve problems such as pollutionBecause through these genetic or structural modifications and the plant’s ability to quickly gather soil information, it is possible to create seeds that can detect contaminants, thereby preempting larger potential problems. Because it gives us the ability to plan.same thing happens bioremediationThis is a specialty dedicated to restoring soils altered by a variety of adverse environmental conditions, and could be a valuable aid to nanobionic genetically modified plants.
Also, at MIT, scientists developed Plants with enhanced photosynthetic capacity By embedding nanostructures inside cells, they can not only absorb 30% more energy from sunlight, but also detect pollutants.
This is exactly one of the principles of nanobionics. By embedding sensors in plants, we could alternatively and effectively monitor pesticide use, detect infections caused by fungal and bacterial toxins, and know how much more we could use. not.
sauce: El Mundo, Scientific American