IDEAS THAT CHANGE THE WORLD
The term electroecology is still little used or known compared with the much more familiar electrophysiology. Yet it is a term that could soon become familiar, and could hold the key to saving planet Earth and its ecosystems, increasingly threatened by pollution and abrupt climate change.
But what exactly is it? Electroecology is based on the use of electric fields by living organisms, such as animals and plants. It opens up a prospect that has excited researchers and scientists. In the future, automata that learn to manage these electric fields in a way not unlike what already happens in the natural and plant worlds could become an invaluable asset in protecting the environment.
Discovering electroecology
Electroecology starts with observing the environment and the ways in which plants and animals interact with electric fields. This is not science fiction; in fact, electric fields are all around us. Many living organisms, both animals and plants, can transmit and detect them, and even use them, relying on nothing more than the senses nature has given them. Almost “superpowers” to anyone unfamiliar with the delicate connections that govern life within a natural ecosystem.
This is the case, for example, with bees. During pollination, these insects, so important to the environment’s survival, use electrostatic interactions. These can combine, when bees swarm together, into a collective electric field of very high intensity. This response is generated by the vibrations of the bees’ bodies and is not an end in itself. Some studies have revealed that this electric field can influence the climate in the area where the swarm is located, helping it survive. Locusts and bumblebees also produce electric fields, during migrations or simply while playing.
But electroecology is not confined to the animal world; plants can also harness electrical energy generated, for example, by gusts of wind. Leaves store electricity from wind, raindrops or grains of dust and airborne particles. They can use it to communicate with other plants and other living organisms.
When robotics takes inspiration from plants and animals
Observing this fascinating discipline, previously neglected by researchers, gave a group of scientists at the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa a flash of inspiration. Electroecology, argue professors Giulia Raffaele, Fabian Meder and Donato Romano, could inspire robotics and play a pivotal role in protecting and safeguarding the environment, an increasingly urgent and serious issue.
By devoting study and research to electroecology and the way it is used in nature, it will be possible to create new robotic infrastructures that exploit the same electric fields. Robots, then, but also biohybrid platforms, highly sophisticated next-generation sensors and new solutions for energy harvesting.
The key to the project is to make new robots better integrated into the environment and ecosystem, in order to minimise polluting emissions and use new sources of “clean” energy. All thanks to the invisible charges found at natural biointerfaces. The electricity generated by plants or animals is currently not yet measurable, and this exciting field of research still leaves much to explore. It will be up to scientists, today’s but especially tomorrow’s, to seize the extraordinary opportunity opened up by the research in Pisa.
The future has yet to be written. But perhaps simply looking around reveals that many of the resources we may need for the survival of Earth’s ecosystem already exist in nature. Observation, measurement and study will then be followed by “virtual” replication.
