Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are giving plants enhanced abilities by placing tiny carbon nanotubes within their cells. The research, published in the journal Nature Materials, was led by MIT professor of chemical engineering Michael Strano and postdoctoral scholar Juan Pablo Giraldo.
Strano’s lab has been working at the nexus of plant biology and nanotechnology – an area called plant nanobionics – for three years, trying to figure out how to give plants new abilities. Some of the altered plants increased their photosynthetic activity by 30 percent, compared with unaltered plants. Others were able to detect tiny traces of pollutants in the air.
Read the full, original story: Scientists Create Bionic Plants
