Apart from being a superfood, spinach can now detect changes leading to climate change, explosive materials and alert humans with e-mails.

According to a published study in Nature Materials, MIT engineers have developed a method to transform spinach sensors that are capable of detecting explosive materials; when the spinach roots detect compounds found in explosives in groundwater, carbon nanotubes in the leaves will send a signal to an infrared camera, which will then alert scientists monitoring the area via e-mail.

This technology is currently titled as plant nanobionics, the “process of giving plants new abilities.”

As plants are very environmentally responsive, they can detect small changes in soil and water, such as possible droughts or contamination. By the use of nanobionics, spinach could not only alert scientists of landmines, it can also warn scientists of other contaminations and upcoming environmental changes.

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