ave created A new type of material that would vanish at some set time, whenever the energy and/or nutrients applied to it were set to be “turned-off.”
How it can help agriculture: There are many uses in agriculture where materials are only needed for a short amount of time, or rather, need to be moved out of the way to allow for some process to happen. Having materials that can de-construct themselves, and essentially vanish back into their molecular form, could mean a lot for finding a way to deal with plastic waste coming out of agriculture. Imagine, if you will, the black plastic tarps used in many horticulture crops, breaking down when a farmer wanted them to, vs. having to pull them off and send them to the landfill. This is early stage, but certainly big potential.