Spinach is certainly an unbeleafable plant, having been used by scientists to grow human heart tissue and even to make batteries with enough energy to power an electric car. Right now an MIT study is blowing up in the news, with mainstream media outlets claiming that “spinach can send emails.” But can it? Eh, not exactly.
More accurately, scientists insert nanoparticles into spinach leaves, and these nanoparticles are utilized as sensors to detect explosives and also emit infrared light. The spinach absorbs groundwater up through its roots, and when the nanoparticles sense the presence of explosive chemicals in that water, the nano-sensors in the leaves emit signals to an infrared camera, and that camera sends a wireless email alert to let researchers know explosives are present. That’s a far cry from a plant typing out a message to Popeye to remind him to eat his spinach, which a lot of these headlines suggest.