Scientists Have Taught Spinach to Send Emails and I Only Have One Question

Why?

In some weird news to kick off February, a bunch of scientists at MIT have decided that what we really need right now is special engineered spinach that is capable of sending emails (priorities, am I right?).

To answer the burning question on just about everyone’s minds, the reason they have decided to try and make spinach sentient is so that they can use the veggie as a ‘living sensor’ to detect explosives.

Okay? I’m still confused.

As reported by Euronews, the engineered spinach roots detect the presence of nitroaromatics, which are often found in landmines in the groundwater. From there, the plants' carbon nanotubes emit a signal that is read by an infrared camera and sent as an email alert to scientists.

So no, baby spinach is not just typing away at someone’s laptop (sorry to burst your bubble).

This process, which apparently isn’t new, is known as ‘plant nonobionics’. This is essentially the process of giving plants new abilities (pls don’t tell the vegan community).

Euronews reports that this kind of technology is now going to be used to detect climate change and pollution, so it looks like the plants are taking things into their own hands.

"While the purpose of this experiment was to detect explosives, Strano and other scientists believe it could be used to help warn researchers about pollution and other environmental conditions," the publication wrote.

"Because of the vast amount of data plants absorb from their surroundings, they are ideally situated to monitor ecological changes.

"In the early phases of plant nanobionic research, Strano used nanoparticles to make plants into sensors for pollutants. By altering how the plants photosynthesized, he was able to have them detect nitric oxide, a pollutant caused by combustion."

While this is honestly kind of cool to see, the idea of plants being somewhat sentient—let alone sending emails—is just absolutely wild, and clearly something that Twitter cannot forgive.

okay my spinach never emails ME. i feel left out

— Queen Kitten (5'5 and Officially 25) (@ElaniKitten) February 2, 2021

the rotting spinach at the bottom of my crisper:

"AS PER MY LAST EMAIL..." pic.twitter.com/TB3gP7UDJk

— Lukas Neville (@lukasneville) February 2, 2021

Here’s to the future where we put an end to climate change but receive passive aggressive emails from one of our fave superfoods.

Header Image: Rawf8 and Kativ