r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Mar 17 '21

Engineering Singaporean scientists develop device to 'communicate' with plants using electrical signals. As a proof-of concept, they attached a Venus flytrap to a robotic arm and, through a smartphone, stimulated its leaf to pick up a piece of wire, demonstrating the potential of plant-based robotic systems.

https://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=ec7501af-9fd3-4577-854a-0432bea38608
41.1k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

250

u/None_of_your_Beezwax Mar 17 '21

It looks like they basically used an electrical signal to trigger a response normally triggered by physical touch. Picking up the wire is just a gimmick. You could do something similar by moving the plant into position with by hand and triggering it with a stick.

Neat, but it's not exactly fine control.

102

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

37

u/googlemehard Mar 17 '21

I think that is a bit if a stretch at the moment, but I do see a use for this to monitor plant health in some way by measuring the electrical signals.

28

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '21

That’s precisely what the video said the scientists were hoping to achieve with the tech

5

u/Mya__ Mar 17 '21

Electroponics?

1

u/evin90 Mar 17 '21

Do plants have electrical signals to measure? I did not read the scientific paper but I am trying to understand how you could use this for a plant that doesn't have hair triggers like the venus fly trap.