Cybernetic Venus flytrap anyone? MIT researchers create plants that are part machine, all awesome, and could one day even be turned into living gas detectors. Freelancer Michael Franco writes about ...

What if plants had superpower abilities that rivaled some of Marvel Comics’ finest heroes? Thanks to scientists at MIT, it’s no longer just a comic book fantasy. Plants embedded with special ...

MIT researchers have engineered a bionic plant that can detect explosives and send a warning signal – without wires! – to scientists nearby. Talk about spinach as superfood, Popeye! In a new paper in ...

Popeye was right when it came to the health benefits of spinach, but that simple sailor man couldn’t have predicted this unorthodox use of the superfood. Researchers at MIT have found a way to use ...

With few exceptions, every single plant on this planet can convert light energy into chemical energy. And they do a pretty good job of this, even though they only use about 10 percent of the sunlight ...

Leaves of light Instead of mobile phone towers and street lights, imagine a world where trees light our way at night and branches are antennae. This vision to harness plants as a source of energy has ...

Researchers at MIT have boosted the photosynthetic power of plants by a factor of three after injecting them with specialized nanoparticles. In the future, these biologically uplifted plants could be ...

Most people already understand what makes plants such an important part of the environment — by absorbing light and carbon, they’re able to photosynthesize, releasing fresh oxygen into the atmosphere ...

Plants have many valuable functions: They provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe, and add beauty to our surroundings. Now, researchers wants to make plants even more useful by ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Plants have many valuable functions: They provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe, and add beauty to our surroundings. Now, a team of MIT researchers wants to make ...

Researchers at MIT are giving plants super powers by placing tiny carbon nanotubes deep within their cells. Some of the altered plants increased their photosynthetic activity by 30% compared with ...