Danli Luo

The world is losing about 10 million hectares of forests every year to both natural factors and human activities. Spraying seeds from planes or drones is one of the most efficient ways to plant trees in remote areas and help the environment recover. But there’s little that people can do to make sure those seeds actually germinate. Animals, rain, and wind can all prevent seeds from penetrating the soil. 

Danli Luo, 32, a materials scientist and PhD candidate at the University of Washington, looked to nature for inspiration. She found Erodium, a flowering plant whose coil-shaped seeds drill into the soil by winding and unwinding as the humidity changes. 

Based on those mechanics, she led a team that designed “E-seed,” a tiny seed carrier. It has coiled tails made of wood veneer that can help a variety of seeds (measuring up to 10 millimeters in diameter) bury themselves in soil. It can also carry fertilizers or other substances to aid seed germination. 

The key was in “programming” the wood material. Much like software developers who program an application, Luo tinkered with the wood veneer by removing a component called lignin so it’s more pliable; she also simulated how different shapes of coils would act once deployed, and ended up designing a carrier with three curved tails (while the natural Erodium seed has one) to keep the seed upright and boost its chances of germination.

The result is a simple, versatile, naturally sourced, and completely biodegradable solution to deforestation. Her technology has already been licensed by a Fortune 500 company, she says. Now Luo is working to find manufacturers or 3D printing services that can scale up production.