***Scientists Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes from the MIT Media Lab created a plant-based cyborg. They call it “the plant in direct dialogue with a machine”.***

<center>http://news.mit.edu/sites/mit.edu.newsoffice/files/styles/news_article_image_top_slideshow/public/images/2017/MIT-Glowing-Plants_0.jpg?itok=SBDe9XIx</center>
***Source: By: Seon-Yeong Kwak via: [MIT News](http://news.mit.edu/2017/engineers-create-nanobionic-plants-that-glow-1213)***

We usually associate MIT with mostly technical inventions. But sometimes they come up even with biological inventions. An example of this can be the glowing watercress (Nasturtium officinale) that shines three and half hours a day. To create this the scientists used an enzyme called luciferase and they “borrowed” it from animals. But this time there is a bit of a difference. Instead of just injecting a plant with the enzyme they used genetic modifications and thus the plant can synthesize the enzyme itself.

When you hear genetic modification you might immediately think the scientists changed the plant's genome using a tool like CRISPR. But not this time, this time they exposed the plants to high pressure while the plant was in a solution in which you could find the luciferase enzyme, the luciferin pigment and coenzyme A (a metabolic product decontaminator). These were chosen not only because the plant can tolerate them but also allow the plant to build them into the correct places without them becoming toxic. The pressure then makes the nanoparticles get inside the plant through pores in the leaves.

But now let's talk about Elowan. As we already said, we already have glowing plants, plants that detect explosives, other plants that can tell you about drought through your cell phone and now we have a riding photo-plant-cyborg.

<center>https://youtu.be/rptKlKZc7cs</center>

This weird monstrosity has been created by Harpreet Sareen and Pattie Maes. They started with the realization that even plants have circuits that are used to transfer bioelectrochemical signals between the plant's tissues. These allow them to react when the plant is attacked by pests and more. Plants, for example, use electrochemical signals to react to the temperature, changes in the soil or sunlight. So all they needed to do was to put silver electrodes into a few places in the plant and amplify the signals. But instead of me talking in length I suggest you watch the video.

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