SINGAPORE — Remote-controlled Venus flytrap “robo-plants” and crops that tell farmers when they are hit by disease could become the reality after scientists developed a high-tech system for communicating with vegetation.
Researchers in Singapore linked up plants to electrodes capable of monitoring the weak electrical pulses naturally emitted by the greenery.
The scientists used the technology to trigger a Venus flytrap to snap its jaws shut at the push of a button on a smartphone app.
They then attached one of its jaws to a robotic arm and got the contraption to pick up a piece of wire half a millimeter thick, and catch a small falling object.
The technology is in its e…
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