A Venus Fly Trap Calculator!
There’s something downright magical about watching a Venus flytrap snap shut—two tiny lobes closing around unsuspecting prey in less than a tenth of a second. But what if, instead of devouring insects, these carnivorous plants could help us perform computations? In a recent study by Yi-Sheng Lai and Hung-Yu Shen, researchers did exactly that: they coaxed Venus flytraps into acting as the building blocks of a ripple-carry adder, a fundamental component of arithmetic logic units in modern computers. The result is nothing short of botanical biocomputing, leveraging calcium-mediated electrical spikes and millennia-old plant machinery to perform binary logic.
Plant electrophysiology isn’t new—since the 19th century, scientists have known that plants like the Venus flytrap generate action potentials in response to mechanical stimuli. In these plants, tiny trigger hairs serve as mechanosensors: one hair bend creates a subthreshold depolarization, but two bends within about 30 seconds open calcium channels, producing a full-blown electrical spike. This spike propagates across the trap, causing rapid turgor changes that snap the trap shut . Lai and Shen realized that this “two-hair rule” perfectly mirrors an AND gate: only when both inputs (hair bends) are present does the spike—and thus the output—occur.
To turn biology into binary logic, the team mapped “0” to an open leaf and “1” to a closed leaf. They carefully wired copper electrodes onto leaf surfaces so that when a trap closed, the circuit completed, generating a measurable voltage change. Because plant action potentials are typically on the order of a few hundred millivolts, a low-power amplifier (an off-the-shelf Arduino booster) was necessary to bring the signal into the 5 V domain common in electronics. Crucially, the amplifier only boosted the voltage; it didn’t alter the timing or shape of the calcium spike, preserving the integrity of the biological computation.
Arithmetic circuits in computers often rely on cascade-style adders, where each bit’s sum and carry-out feed into the next higher bit—hence “ripple-carry.” Lai and Shen constructed a two-bit adder by interconnecting four Venus flytraps: two for the least significant bit (LSB) inputs, two for the most significant bit (MSB), and additional traps to handle carry signals. When you press the appropriate trigger hairs on the LSB traps, their output closure both signals the sum bit and, if needed, propagates a carry spike to the next stage. Ternary logic (three states) can in principle be implemented by interpreting subthreshold depolarizations as an intermediate “half” state, but this proof-of-concept focused on binary addition.
One of the most delightful aspects of this work is how the researchers used a touch-sensitive Mimosa pudica—another plant known for its rapid leaf folding—to act as a user interface. Touching a Mimosa leaf generates a quick electrical signal that can be read as a “1,” while leaving it untouched is “0.” In effect, you have a living keyboard: press a leaf, and the plant tells the computer that you want to add 1 + 1. The results are then fed into the Venus flytrap adder, and the sum is displayed by watching another trap close. It’s planty, it’s green, and it’s (literally) a botanical calculator.
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| The circuit diagram of the plant based calculator. The mimosa acts as the keyboard and the output of the adder. The Venus fly trap acts as the "brains" of the calculator. The computer chips act only as the amplifiers, the plants perform the addition. |
One of the biggest challenges in neuromorphic and unconventional computing is energy efficiency. Here, the Venus flytrap approach shines: each gate consumes on the order of tens of microwatts. Lai and Shen measured about 38 µW per trap operation, orders of magnitude below typical silicon CMOS gates operating at gigahertz speeds. Of course, plant computations are slower—action potentials occur over tens to hundreds of milliseconds—but for applications where speed is secondary to energy sustainability, living logic could be transformative.
No scientific endeavor is without its hurdles. In this system, amplifiers were indispensable for signal readout, yet they represent a thorn in the side of ultra-low-power design. The team needed 5 V to drive standard digital electronics, but the plant signals were initially just millivolts. Future work might explore custom bio-amplifiers or direct integration of biopotential sensors, perhaps leveraging nanomaterials, to minimize external boosting. Overcoming this limitation could push plant-based computing closer to real-world deployment, especially in remote or resource-constrained environments.
You might wonder: why not stick with silicon? Traditional microelectronics have driven extraordinary progress, yet they face growing concerns over heat dissipation, resource scarcity, and environmental impact. Biocomputing offers a fresh paradigm: harnessing renewable, self-repairing living systems to perform information processing. Imagine distributed sensor networks in remote ecosystems where plants both sense environmental inputs and compute responses—no batteries required, just sunlight and water.
Lai and Shen’s work is a proof-of-concept, but it points toward a future where our computational world intertwines with the biosphere. Picture green walls in urban buildings that don’t just purify air but also regulate data flows in smart infrastructure. Envision “living wearables” that monitor physiological signals and compute health metrics in situ, powered by the wearer’s own sweat and ambient light. While these ideas may sound like science fiction, the humble Venus flytrap adder reminds us that nature’s designs often hold untapped potential.
In the race for greener, more sustainable computing, plants may prove to be heavyweight contenders. Yi-Sheng Lai and Hung-Yu Shen have shown that with a bit of ingenuity, a Venus flytrap can do more than snap at flies—it can add numbers, too. Their ripple-carry ternary biocomputer is a playful yet profound demonstration that the boundary between biology and technology is more porous than we often assume. As we seek to build computing systems that tread lightly on our planet, perhaps it’s time to look to our gardens—and not just for fresh air, but for fresh ideas.
Authos: Alexander James White
Reference: Lai, Y. S., & Shen, H. Y.(2025) Venus Flytrap Biological Logic Gates for Ripple‐Carry Ternary Biocomputer. Advanced Sustainable Systems, e00296.
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