10 Future Plants That Will Change the Game

Like bomb-sniffing dogs, plants can respond to their environments through an input/output dynamic. This enables them to perform a variety of tasks, such as clean up pollution.

The Legend of Zelda series has multiple fictional flowers that convey different abilities to the player. Similarly, the Nirnroot in Elder Scrolls and the "bomb flowers" in Mario allow the player to destroy obstacles.

1. Genetic Engineering

Genetically modified plants are already used in commercial plantations to create crops that are resistant to herbicides and insects. This can help reduce the need for toxic agrochemicals that harm humans and animals.

Currently, genetically engineered plants are created through a process known as marker-assisted selection (MAS). DNA-based molecular markers are used to select cultivated plants that contain desired forms of genes. This method reduces the sample size needed for testing and speeds up breeding times.

Increasing genomics knowledge will allow scientists to engineer larger gene constructs that might introduce whole biochemical pathways into plants. However, a key challenge will be to assess whether these changes have any unexpected nontarget effects on the plant. To do this, scientists will compare the engineered genomes of GE plants to the reference genome of their nontransformed parent. This will reveal any off-target changes and give context to evaluate their potential negative consequences.

2. Wearable Sensors

Scientists in Singapore have engineered venus flytrap plants that can be controlled with the touch of a button. The researchers are hoping that similar technology could be used to interpret signals emitted by other plant species, giving them a better understanding of crop stressors and how they affect the health of a plant.

The research was started by Professor Laura Strader, who is a professor at North Carolina State University and the director of the Climate Plant Innovation Network. Strader focuses on creating partnerships across the sciences, using her unique background and experience to connect researchers that might not otherwise interact. Among her efforts, she helped to create an online platform called the Climate Plant Innovation Network where scientists can share ideas, collaborate and develop new technologies.

3. Phytoremediation

Plants are able to remove various pollutants from water, air and soil. This can be achieved by chelation, in which plants attach themselves to metal ions and form complexes with them. This allows plants to remove dyes, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, inorganic elements and pesticides from wastewater.

Besides this, plants have the capability to absorb organic pollutants as well. For example, hybrid poplars are able to reduce halogenated VOCs like trichloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride. Other phytoremediation plants include sunflowers, which are able to reduce PAH levels in soil.

Phytoremediation also helps in reducing environmental pollution by covering the polluted sites with a layer of greenery. This prevents wind and water from carrying the toxins to other locations. The plants used in this process can even be harvested once the remediation cycle is over. This makes it a more eco-friendly alternative to conventional techniques.

4. Biofuels

Liquid biofuels provide an effective alternative to fossil fuels by displacing petroleum and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They can also serve as a bridge technology for industries that are difficult to electrify, such as maritime and aviation.

Current liquid biofuels, such as ethanol produced from corn and other starchy plants, and vegetable oil-based biodiesel, are referred to as first-generation biofuels. Second-generation biofuels are derived from non-edible plant parts (lignocellulosic biomass) including crop residues, agricultural wastes, perennial grasses, and microalgae.

Scientists are working to create lignocellulosic biofuel plants that can produce energy using only sunlight and water. These new biofuels will be able to curb carbon emissions and even sequester carbon in the ground over time. They can also be produced locally, creating jobs and reducing shipping costs and emissions. They are also more environmentally friendly than conventional gasoline and diesel because they contain fewer chemicals such as chlorine and sulphur.

5. Viruses

Viruses are a fascinating part of life. They have shaped scientific disciplines like virology and general science for decades, just as they have influenced society more broadly.

Currently, viruses cause over 50% of plant diseases worldwide (Jones and Naidu 2019). These pathogens decrease marketable quality and lower crop yields, costing the agriculture industry $30 billion per year.

During viral infection, plants initiate a defense response to inhibit virus replication and release proteins that neutralize or slow the movement of viruses within the cell. Typically, this occurs through the NLR protein-based zigzag model, where dsRNA recognition by R proteins triggers both PTI and ETI (Leonetti et al. 2021).

6. Nanotechnology

When scientists and engineers create products using nanotechnology, they manipulate individual atoms and molecules to enhance their properties. Some of the resulting products are already on the market today. These include graphene -- modified carbon that's harder than steel, lighter than aluminum and nearly transparent. Other examples are metal-matrix composites (MMC) used to reduce heat in computer "server farms" and lightweight vehicles that can be airlifted.

The concept of nanotechnology was first introduced in 1959 by American Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman in his famous lecture, There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. The term was later coined by Norio Taniguchi and the field of nanotechnology is now broadly divided into several subfields, including engineered molecular assembly, DNA nanotechnology and programmable matter.

While pessimists worry about potential dystopias, optimists believe that nanotechnology will be a game-changer for society, addressing key needs in basic scientific research, agriculture and environmental stewardship as well as energy, health care and manufacturing.

7. Artificial Intelligence

There's virtually no major industry that modern AI -- which often falls into the categories of deep learning or machine learning -- hasn't touched. For games, the biggest changes have come in procedural content generation and player behavior prediction.

That's why the gaming industry's biggest studios like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts have invested in central teams dedicated to AI research. They also want to use it for mo-cap animation, allowing their characters to move and react naturally within complex game worlds.

Another area where generative AI holds promise is in the creation of in-game worlds and other assets, such as music and audio. This is already possible through a subset of the broader machine learning algorithm known as reinforcement learning, which allows computer algorithms to learn by performing repeated tasks. Eventually, this will allow for "self-play" games that improve as they go.

8. Fusion Power

During fusion, lighter atoms like hydrogen combine into heavier ones such as helium to produce energy. It takes a lot of heat and pressure to create this reaction, but if successful, fusion power could provide clean abundant energy with no greenhouse gases or long-lived radioactive waste.

A new fusion experiment has boosted hopes that net energy production can be achieved at a commercial scale. This would be a major milestone as fusion energy is still a long way from a commercial power plant.

A Washington state start-up backed by venture capital is betting it can make fusion power commercial much sooner than many experts believe is possible. The company, Helion Energy, is working to reach the Q equals 1 threshold where a reactor produces more energy than it consumes. But even if it does, bringing fusion to the mainstream will be a lengthy process.

9. Genetically Modified Plants

For thousands of years, people used selective breeding and crossbreeding to create crops with desirable characteristics. However, these methods were limited to the exchange of genes between the same or very closely related species, and it could take a long time to achieve desired results.

Genetic engineering, on the other hand, allows scientists to insert new DNA into plant cells. Then, they grow those cells in tissue culture, and the resulting plants will have genetic features that can make them healthier or more resistant to pests, climate factors and disease.

In a field known for glacial progress and heavy regulation, Living Carbon moved quickly to get its blight-resistant poplars to market. But it will have to do even more research if it wants to make more complex trees, such as drought or saline-resistant ones. That requires a deeper understanding of the molecular level of plant-fungi interactions.

10. Biofuels

Various types of biofuels can be used to produce electricity, heat and other forms of renewable energy. Biofuels can also be used to replace petroleum-based fuels for transportation (mainly aviation and heavy vehicles). But there are still significant challenges related to their environmental sustainability, including increasing food prices, GHG emissions and land-use change.

Currently, scientists are working on developing advanced biofuels and bioproducts using non-food lignocellulosic plants such as poplar and switchgrass as feedstocks. The biofuels and other products are created by deconstructing the feedstocks through low-temperature deconstruction, a process that involves enzymes or chemical catalysts. The biofuels are then refined into gasoline, diesel and other petroleum-based fuels to replace fossil fuels. This helps reduce conventional and greenhouse gas pollutant emissions, dependency on unstable foreign oil suppliers, and pressure on the earth’s limited supply of exhaustible resources.