Lining Yao, the Cooper-Siegel Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, worked with a team of collaborators to engineer a biodegradable seed carrier referred to as E-seed. Source: Timberbiz
This seed carrier, fashioned from wood veneer, could enable aerial seeding of difficult-to-access areas, and could be used for a variety of seeds or fertilizers and adapted to many different environments.
It’s an idea that Ms Yao, the daughter of part-time farmers, has pondered since she was a PhD student at MIT in the mid-2010s.
“Seed burial has been heavily studied for decades in terms of mechanics, physics and materials science, but until now, no one has created an engineering equivalent,” said Ms Yao. “The seed carrier research has been particularly rewarding because of its potential social impact. We get excited about things that could have a beneficial effect on nature.”
The E-seed carrier is made of a moisture-sensitive white oak veneer and sports three tails – this helps it to get into an upright position.
E-seed’s three pronged corkscrew tail unwinds and twists into the ground when exposed to moisture, burying the seed safely away from birds and harsh environmental conditions.
Scientists are working on adapting the five-step manufacturing process for industrial production.
E-seeds can be dispensed by drones into hard-to-reach places.
A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Nature.
A video of this innovative seed planting process is at:
