A sensor that lives inside a tomato plant can hear drought coming

The Bioristor is a tiny sensor slipped into a tomato plant's stem, where it quietly tracks the water and salts moving inside the plant, minute by minute. In two case studies published in Plant Methods, it sorted three commercial tomato varieties — Mariner, Faber and Red Setter — and a panel of experimental lines by how well each copes with drought, and with drought and heat together, catching the onset, progression and recovery of stress that standard plant checks miss. For breeders racing to grow food in a hotter, drier climate, that early read could mean picking tomorrow's tough tomatoes years sooner.

SDG 2 · Zero hunger — Mechanism: tech innovation