'Cyborg botany' is a process that turns plants into electronic devices

Is it possible to replace some of your artificial devices with cyborg plants to reduce e-waste? Harpreet Sareen, an Assistant Professor at the Parsons School of Design and a research affiliate at MIT Media Lab, certainly thinks so. He coined the term "Cyborg Botany" to define the process of harnessing the natural capabilities of plants to turn them into electronic devices.

In his latest projects, Phytoactuators and Planta Digitalis, Sareen hacked into the electrical signals of a Venus Flytrap and a Mimosa Pudica to prove that plants can, in fact, act as displays or even motion sensors. Read more...