Hm, is that a minefield? Let me just throw my magic bomb-sniffing spinach over there

Borg spinach?

injecting nanoparticles into a biological lifeform. If the spinach begins sprouting ominous looking hardware, RUN.

Of course, I suppose the adaptive shielding WOULD be very practical for surviving the odd mine detonation.

Look, get someone to figure out how dogs noses work. Simulation it on wafer. Then put the sensor in my next phone. Job done.

So how does one inject the nanotubes?

Or plant a pre-treated plant?

Without entering the minefield?

This technique probably has some great applications, but minefield detection is definitely not one of them!

Pollutant detection sounds feasible - plant them around a bunded tanked to spot leaks.

I don't get it

Using these plants for the detection of chemical nasties around factories or nuclear processing sites makes sense but bomb sniffing? What are they going to do, seed the whole of Afghanistan or the Middle East?

I wouldn't want to be an intern or wearing a red shirt when this goes into field testing.

Does no-one else care?

I was most thrilled by the Raspberry Pi bit.

Is there nothing the little beauties can't do?

And Spinach Harvester now outranks Alligator Wrestler on the World's Most Dangerous Jobs list.

Couldn't resist...

I'm weak at the finish,

Cos AIDS beats out Spinach,

I'm Popeye,

The Dyin' man.. - Drawn Together

One thing with this Spinach mine detector idea, wouldn't it be better in places like Vietnam to spray it from the air in a small area, and see if local plants show the effect as strongly? Because as I understand this you've got to traipse around planting spinach or injecting random plants (some of which are more than capable of taking extreme exception to being touched) in the middle of potential minefields.. Not a job conducive to general health.. While avoiding such lovable critters as Russell's Vipers and Blue Striped Coral snakes..

I've a feeling this one of those "great ideas in the lab but this is real life" situations.

I can't really think of any place to use it.. A nuclear accident, you'd know you were contaminated when you started to melt (or in the case of Chernobyl, the fish got sleepy), a chemical accident like Bhopal - you know when your lungs have climbed out of your chest to complain personally.. It's a clever idea, like the spiders spinning graphene webs but I can see a use for them, for this I just can't.

What if

The plants start lying to us, in an attempt to control human numbers?

Sprinkle any old seeds, pigeons land, mines are detected. As a bonus, pigeon problem is also solved.

Bah!

It's like these "scientists" never even read The Day of The Triffids.

Mark my words; this plant-tweaking won't end well.

Sure no problems there

Microbeads at 10 micrometres are hazardous and collect in the environment and people but 10 nanometre particles will be perfectly safe.

And how can we have a free society if the government and business is monitoring you on a molecular level?

As for the applications suggested we already have solutions for those we just choose not to use them.

Using spinich is very clever

You don't have to worry about people/animals stealing and eating it.

So...

I clear the field, dig it over, plant spinach and watch it grow.

If I CAN watch it grow, then there were no land mines in it.

Is that how it works?

Real life usefulness

I'll be impressed when they can grow a plant from seed that makes it's on nanotubes or whatever. Scatter the seeds from a small drone and then us a sensor equipped drone to spray a die over any area with bomb indications above the background level.

Very, very clever

and useful in the same way that having body armour that is inpenetrable from the inside would be.