Scientists Create Plant That Feeds On Electricity And Grows Wires

[zelly]

This article sounded pretty newsworthy to me...

Scientists in Sweden have created the world’s first “cyber plant”, an electronically augmented plant that can live off of electricity and grow its own robotic parts.

The scientists at Linkoping University built analogue and digital circuits inside of living flowers using semi-conductive polymers. These polymers were added to water, which once dissolved and absorbed through a rose’s natural vascular system, formed electrical components that resembled wires.

The wires were able to spread evenly through the plant, forming conductive structures up to 10 centimetres long without restricting its ability to carry water and nutrients.

From there scientists were able to create simple transistors, switching the current through the wires on and off, and also used vacuum infiltration to send another polymer into the rose leaf, creating a basic display with pixels partitioned by veins.

The rudimentary display allowed the research group, under the leadership of Professor Magnus Berggren, to change the colour of the leaf to different shades of green.

“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,” Professor Berggren said.

“Everything occurs naturally, and we use the plants’ own very advanced, unique systems.

“As far as we know, there are no previously published research results regarding electronics produced in plants. No one’s done this before.”

The research, published in Science Advances, “paves the way for new technologies and tools based on the amalgamation of organic electronics and plants in general”, the report read.

“Distributed conducting wires and electrodes along the stems and roots and in the leaves are preludes to electrochemical fuel cells, charge transport, and storage systems that convert sugar produced from photosynthesis into electricity, in vivo.”

http://yournewswire.com/scientists-create-worlds-first-plant-that-feeds-on-electricity/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-22/scientists-create-analog-digital-circuits-inside-living-flowers/6961698

[BedOSpines]

lol that is amazing stuff. i really don't know how to feel about this. when can my garden start feeding power to the grid?

[bardo]

Sweden always doing crazy science shit : )

[wert]

great I'll be cutting up a cactus for lunch and get electrocuted.

pretty cool though.

[DiscoStu]

what a time to to be alive

[Sallubrious]

Cool !

I had a book in the ninetees titled "bebop to the boolean boogie" and there was a snippet in there about cell cultures being used to create logic gates and the author speculated that one day we might be able to grow computers. It seems it's still a long way off but if they can produce a transistor gate function then it's getting closer to the biocomputer speculated about in the book.

[ace1928]

I especially love the thoughts of a DNA computer being mixed with this. Grow the circuitry AND the storage. Plug in a compatible display and boom. Good to go.
Still a while off I'd say but it will happen some day.