{"id":29668,"date":"2021-02-12T06:37:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T14:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=29668"},"modified":"2021-02-12T06:37:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T14:37:48","slug":"spinach-to-the-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=29668","title":{"rendered":"Spinach to the Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you think my interests run eclectic, you might not be wrong. But why spinach? Let me count the reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Spinach belongs to the chenopodiaceae family, also known as goosefoot<\/em><\/strong> (the family includes beets, chards and quinoia.) I am currently saddled with a post-op drainage bag dangling from my ribs that my husband lovingly dubbed The Goose<\/em> for the honking noises it makes every time I cough (which is about every two minutes; if we lived in ancient Rome where geese were used as guards, we’d be all set for invasion by the Gauls.) My fantasy is that if I consume enough spinach, that goose will acquire feet and waddle away sooner rather than later.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    2. Spinach originated in Persia and spread to Europe in the 12th century, later circling the globe with a reputation for strengthening health<\/a> (and muscles – alas, my brain is currently not muscular enough to come up with an appropriate Popeye the sailor joke.) That reputation is based on facts – among other things, spinach is rich in iron, important to replenish after you lost a lot of blood. Iron plays a central role in the function of red blood cells which help in transporting oxygen around the body, in energy production and DNA synthesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    3. Spinach was recently in the news in the context of scientific advances<\/a> explained in ways that caused serious eye rolling in yours truly. The study, by the way, is 5 years old, but caught someone’s attention some days ago and has ever since made the rounds in competition for clever titles: MIT scientists hack<\/a> spinach plants to send email.<\/em> Spam’s new frontier<\/a>? Now even spinach can send emails.<\/em> You get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The premise is clever: researchers engineered the roots of spinach plants to contain microscopic nanosensors that are capable of detecting nitroaromatics \u2014 chemicals that are often found in explosives and man-made industrial chemicals. Spinach absorbs and constantly recycles groundwater, being in a good position to detect changes in pollution or the presence of explosives devices. (Although, honestly, how could you prepare the ground to plant spinach if there is a danger of landmines, without exploding them? Hoping that they are buried deep?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When the nanosensors detect those compounds, they can send a signal to an infrared camera, which can shoot out an email alert. So far so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Now comes the eye rolling part: “This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant\/human communication barrier,\u201d said Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at MIT and a co-author of the paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Spinach-human communication? That’s like saying my thermostat is talking to me when beeping that the room temperature falls above\/below its setting. Signaling a measurement is not exactly opening a channel for conversation! Then again, the urge to talk to plants is nothing new…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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