Spinach detecting explosive traces produced

By using nanotechnology on spinach, a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has managed to produce a plant capable of detecting traces of explosive in underground waters.

The scientists embedded leaves with carbon nanotubes, which emit fluorescent light when the leaves absorb nitroaromatics from the ground.

The signal can be read by an infrared camera sending a notification by email.

The authors of the project explain that they wanted to demonstrate that it's possible to overcome the communication barrier between plants and people and that the method is applicable to any plant.

The experts have also shown that it is possible to automatically track changes in the surroundings, such as bacterial infections, environmental pollution or drought, by implementing nanotechnology on plants.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

nanotechnology

spinach

nitroaromatics