Researchers Devise a Method to “Communicate” with Plants via Electrical Signals
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Researchers Devise a Method to “Communicate” with Plants via Electrical Signals
The
fact that plants emit barely perceptible electrical signals to sense
and respond to their environments has been known for decades. And yet,
due to the weakness of those signals, as well as the difficulty of
achieving reliable transmission due to the irregular surfaces of many
plants, harnessing that power has been a real challenge.
Now,
however, researchers from the Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore (NTU Singapore) have devised a method that allows them to
“communicate” with a Venus flytrap – a carnivorous plant that lures
insects into its hairy leaf-lobes – and even make it perform certain
actions.
The
NTU team behind the pioneering method that allows researchers to
interface with plants via electrical signals and control their movements
on demand. Image courtesy of the Nanyang Technological University
Results were published in the journal Nature Electronics.
The
feat was achieved by attaching a small piece of conductive material (3
mm in diameter) to the surface of the plant using a sticky hydrogel.
This allowed the researches to monitor how the plant responds to its
environment, and transmit electrical signals through a smartphone to
make it close its leaves on demand, in 1.3 seconds.
Further
improvements to the system could enable the development of highly
sensitive plant-based robotic systems capable of picking up and moving
extremely small and fragile objects. The potential for such applications
was demonstrated by causing the plant to pick up a piece of wire half a
millimetre in diameter.
In
addition, the system could be used to monitor plants’ responses to the
environment and predict the development of diseases in advance, which
could help farmers protect their crops and reduce the chances of bad
yields, improving food security for their respective communities.
“By
monitoring the plants’ electrical signals, we may be able to detect
possible distress signals and abnormalities. When used for agricultural
purposes, farmers may find out when a disease is in progress, even
before full‑blown symptoms appear on the crops, such as yellowed leaves.
This may provide us the opportunity to act quickly to maximise crop
yield for the population,” said lead author Chen Xiaodong.
In a separate study published in the journal Advanced Materials,
researchers have also used a different type of hydrogel called
thermogel to enhance signal transmission and reduce background noise. At
room temperature, thermogel changes from a liquid to a stretchable gel,
thereby allowing for better adherence to plants with different surface
textures.
Up
next, the NTU team is planning to continue work on their new
“communication” device and find other practical applications that could
be used in a wide variety of fields.
Source: media.ntu.edu.sg
