Radiation Detection with Potato Plants: Organic vs. Electronics

Key Things to Know:

• Electronics vs. Radiation: Explore the inherent vulnerabilities of electronic devices in radioactive environments and the unique challenges they face.
• Innovative Potato Radiation Sensors: Discover how researchers have developed potato plants that can detect radiation, offering a novel approach to monitoring radiological contamination.
• Understanding Dosimetry: Gain insights into the science of measuring radiation doses and its critical role in assessing environmental and electronic safety.
• Organics and Electronics Collaboration: Learn about the potential for organic systems and electronic technologies to work together in creating safer environments in the face of radiological threats.

Electronics undoubtedly play a critical role in modern living, underpinning most of society’s needs, but as crucial as they are, there are times when electronics can fail to provide. Recognising the challenges faced by large-scale radiological disasters, researchers have recently developed a potato sensor that can indicate areas of strong radioactive contamination. What challenges do electronics face in radioactive areas, what did the researchers develop, and how can organics and electronics work together?

What challenges do electronics face in radioactive environments?

To say that electronics are crucial to modern life is an understatement. Without them, modern life simply could not exist. Everything we do, from ordering takeaways to arranging billion-dollar deals, relies on electronics, which is why when they fail, it can be disastrous. 

But integrating electronics into such activities can be a challenging task depending on the demands of the application, and the type of environment involved. For example, desktop computers face virtually no issues thanks to the stable temperature, humidity, and lack of mechanical stresses found in typical homes, but integrating that same machine into an automotive can be subjected to wide temperature variations, damp atmospheres, and constant vibration and shock from the engine and road. 

Regardless, engineers find ways to ensure the longevity of electronics in even the harshest environments. However, there are some environments that are simply too hostile for even the strongest electronic designs.

Understanding Radiation Measurement: An Introduction to Dosimetry

To grasp the full extent of the challenges electronics face in radioactive environments, it's crucial to understand how radiation is measured and the principles behind dosimetry. In this informative video, Brad Gersey from the Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration (CRESSE) at Prairie View A&M University, delves into the world of radiation detectors. These devices play a pivotal role in assessing the absorbed doses of radiation, a key factor in evaluating the potential risks and effects of radiation on electronic systems and biological organisms alike. Watch the video to deepen your understanding of dosimetry and its significance in radiation detection and safety measures.

The Unique Threat of Radiation to Electronics

One such environmental factor that it is extremely challenging to defend against is radiation. Unlike temperature, humidity, vibration, and pressure, radiation is particularly nasty due to its ability to damage sensitive electronic components at all levels (both in software and hardware).

With regards to hardware damage, radiation (which itself consists of numerous forms including alpha, beta, and gamma) is able to physically damage the minute delicate structures found inside of modern microchips, as well as building up strong static charges that can damage the thin layers found in MOSFETs. Radiation is also able to induce electrical charges which interfere with signals, especially those relating to sensors and imaging devices.

With regards to software, as radiation can induce electrostatic charges, it can also flip bits in memory. Unless a device incorporates error correction in memory, even a single bit flip can crash a computing device, thus making radioactive environments difficult to reliably run software. Interestingly, servers, which need to be reliable above all else, utilise error-correcting memory as cosmic rays from space can (and do on a regular basis) upset bits in memory. 

Challenges in Radiation Shielding for Electronics

Shielding against radiation is possible but often not practical. Stopping alpha particles is trivial, as even a thin sheet of paper can prevent its passage, and stopping beta particles is possible with the use of a thin sheet of aluminium. But trying to stop gamma rays is challenging, even with meters of concrete, and while gamma rays are by no means as dangerous as alpha and beta particles, they can still cause damage. Making matters worse, any radioactive emission of alpha and beta particles results in gamma emissions, meaning that devices defended against these forms of radiation will still be subjected to gamma rays. 

An excellent example that demonstrated the shortcomings of electronics was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. During the clean-up operation of the power plant, it was found that chunks of graphite from the core had landed on the roof, which was extremely radioactive. To minimise risk to personnel, it was decided that a robotic bulldozer placed on the roof would be used to push the chunks back into the open core. 

However, the radiation levels were so massive that every robotic system placed on the roof would quickly fail. It turned out that the only solution to this issue was to resort to using people to move the chunks, as no electronic circuit could survive. Teams of people were chosen to clear the roof, each being given no more than two minutes to find a piece of graphite, lift it with a spade, and throw it off the roof. For perspective, the amount of radiation received by each worker on the roof over a 90-second period was equivalent to that of an individual’s entire lifetime.

Researchers Create Potato Radiation Sensors

While many lessons were learned from the Chernobyl incident, researchers from the University of Tennessee have caught onto the idea of “biorobots” that can survive for extended periods of time in radioactive environments. Unlike electronic circuits, organisms exposed to fatal levels of radiation can continue to function for hours before succumbing, presenting a potential opportunity for radioactive detection and management. 

This groundbreaking research, as detailed in The Conversation, not only paves the way for innovative environmental monitoring techniques but also demonstrates the potential of phytotechnology in areas previously dominated by electronic solutions. By harnessing the natural responses of potato plants to radiation, scientists are exploring eco-friendly and cost-effective methods to detect and monitor radiological contamination, offering a beacon of hope for enhancing safety measures in nuclear facilities and their surrounding environments.

However, instead of creating organisms designed to go into extremely radioactive areas and die off, the researchers instead exploited how living organisms react to exposure to radiation. Simply put, when radiation damages DNA in living cells, many organisms trigger special immune responses that immediately identify the cells and signal self-destruct sequences to prevent the damaged DNA from causing issues.

By interfering with this reaction, the researchers were able to make potato plants produce a fluorescent marker when in the presence of a strong radioactive source. While this fluorescence is invisible to the human eye, the use of special cameras and drones can be used to identify which plants have been exposed, thereby allowing for rapid identification of hotspots in wide open spaces (such as sites near Chernobyl and Fukushima). 

The Science Behind Potato Plant Radiation Sensors

Further elaborating on the mechanism, the research published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal explains how the genetically engineered potato plants emit a green fluorescent signal in response to gamma radiation exposure. This signal, undetectable to the naked eye but visible through specialised drones, signifies a leap forward in remote sensing capabilities. Such advancements underscore the synergy between biological systems and technological innovations, offering a novel lens through which we can assess and respond to environmental hazards.

Furthermore, as potato plants can withstand almost ten times the amount of radiation that humans can, they are able to survive in dangerous areas while still being able to indicate the levels of radiation in the immediate zone. Finally, as such plants are able to repair themselves and utilise sunlight for energy, there is no need for any infrastructure to keep such sensors operating. 

The resilience and self-sustaining nature of these potato plants highlight a significant advantage over traditional electronic sensors, which require maintenance and a continuous power supply. By integrating these living sensors into environmental monitoring strategies, we can achieve a sustainable, long-term solution for radiation detection that benefits from the plants' natural growth and regeneration cycles. This approach not only reduces the ecological footprint of monitoring technologies but also enhances the scalability and feasibility of deploying sensors in remote or inaccessible areas, further demonstrating the potential of combining organic and electronic systems for environmental protection.

Can Organics and Electronics Work Together?

If the potato sensors developed by the researchers can be deployed and used successfully in radiological disaster areas, it would be an excellent fusion between organics and electronics. The use of drones can help automate sensor scanning while the potato plants continue to grow regardless of the presence of radiation. 

Of course, this also begs the question of what other applications could benefit from the combination of organic and electronic systems. It might turn out that instead of trying to develop humanoid robots to replace humans in dangerous environments, it could be easier to just integrate AI and other advanced robotic systems directly into humans. 

The field of electronics is truly amazing, but for all the benefits that it provides, it isn’t always the answer, and there is a lot to be said for organic systems. Will these potato sensors help protect people from radioactive areas? Will they be sufficient for detecting harmful levels of radiation? Only time will tell.