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Were you told, as a youngster, to "eat your spinach"?

And was the hench, tattooed Popeye a dose of inspiration for your nourishment?

Yes – for a long time the leafy green vegetable has been billed as a superfood. It's full of iron and goodness, and works well with feta in filo pastry parcels.

MIT researchers have just found a new use for spinach. Researchers have engineered a bionic plant that can detect explosives – and even send a warning signal by email to scientists. By email!

A new paper detailing the information has been published in science journal Nature. In it, scientists explain how they've managed to turn plants into bomb-sniffers.

“This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier,” co-author of the study Michael Strano said in a statement.

“Plants are very good analytical chemists,” Strano added.

But how on earth can spinach actually find bombs? And then tell nearby researchers that they exists, and where?

Well, first, let's remember that plants are very good at monitoring their surroundings. Rooted into the ground, their environments are restricted, so they're naturally very capable of sucking up water – which they need – even in testing circumstances.

And plants send water through their internal workings to leaves. Crucially, water isn't ever just water.

(Image: Getty)

Anyway, all this provides the basis for putting 'sensors' inside the plants – or "plant nanobiotics". To intelligent people, it seemed a natural step.

So MIT scientists embedded in spinach tiny materials that give the plants the ability to detect, filter, and process more than just water and nutrients – they can also find chemical compounds often found in land mines and other explosives.

To do this, the spinach roots absorb the chemicals, which may be in the water if bombs such as land mines or IODs are nearby.

The substances travel in the H20 to the plant's leaves in just ten minutes. It's then that the sensors will be alerted – and humans will be told.

(Image: Getty)

"These sensors emit a fluorescent signal that can be seen from an infrared camera nearby," The Verge says.

"This camera is hooked to a tiny computer, so it can send an email alerting someone about this change."

Although MIT used spinach to begin with, the technique can be placed into almost any living plant, according to the study. And there's talk to of actually "teaching" plants to do more of this themselves.