Cyborg Roses Wired with Self-Growing Circuits

Scientists have created a kind of cyborg flower: living roses with tiny electronic circuits threaded through their vascular systems.

The miniscule electronic polymers are inserted into the plant, then almost magically self-assemble thanks to the rose's internal structure.

"In a sense, the plant is helping to organize the electronic devices," said study co-author Magnus Berggren, an organic electronics researcher at Linköping University in Sweden.

The strange cyberplants could one day make it possible to tell flowers when to bloom to avoid an impending frost, or when to put out hormones to prevent a drought.

The new embedded sensor network could one day be used to prevent flowers from blooming when a frost is on the way. It could also be used to preferentially improve a plant's productivity when weather conditions are right, Berggren said.

Of course, scientists routinely use genetic engineering to alter the water demands, flowering process and hardiness of plants. Plant genetic modification is safe, well-understood and extremely easy to do. So why go to the trouble of embedding electronics for the same purpose?

Changing some traits, such as flowering time, may be too disruptive to an ecosystem if done permanently, especially if those changes could propagate through forests and fields, Berggren. But an electronic switch would be reversible, he said. Ultimately, Berggren sees plants of the future combining both genetic engineering and electrical sensors, he said.

For food crops, scientists would have to show that organic polymers don't make it into the fruits, seeds or edible portions of the plant. And ultimately, the team hopes to use biological chemicals, such as chlorophyll, to create the electronic circuits, bypassing the potential for environmental contamination as a result, Berggren said.

"We can refine materials in plants to become semiconductors and conductors, and put them back in plants to become devices," Berggren said.