Image credit – Berggren et al
The idea of technology being implanted into humans isn’t new. We already have devices like pacemakers, and recently we’ve also started seeing people “hack” themselves by embedding LED lights under their skin. However when it comes to electronics and plants, the integration isn’t really there yet, at least until recently.
Led by Magnus Berggren of Linköping University in Sweden, it seems that a group of researchers have actually successfully managed to create a working electronic circuit inside of a rose. For those who are particularly science-y, the paper published by the researchers claims, “The four key components of a circuit have been achieved using the xylem, leaves, veins, and signals of the plant as the template and integral part of the circuit elements and functions.”
The end result? Perhaps it might not seem too fancy, but basically what they have managed to achieve is to use the circuits to light up the ions in the leaves of the plant. Basically a lit-up rose but we suppose the implications and the possibilities are pretty huge. According to Berggren, he envisions introducing a biofuel cell system to convert solar energy into chemical energy, and convert that energy into stored electrical energy.
Berggren says, “Now we can really start talking about power plants—we can place sensors in plants and use the energy formed in the chlorophyll [to power them], produce green antennae, or produce new materials. Everything occurs naturally, and we use the plants’ own very advanced systems.” Of course it is still in its early stages but as Berggren says, “When we have tapped out resources from nature in the past we have always chopped it or burnt it. Maybe this could be a way of tapping energy from plants without having to kill them.”
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