LEGOS: the Perfect Research Tool?

Scientists searching for an efficient but inexpensive and adaptable way to make controlled research environments have found their solution in an unexpected place: the toy isle.

According to a study published in PLOS One, researchers from Iowa State University used clear plastic LEGO bricks to craft adaptable environments for plant and root system study.

"When I started this research program, there was a lack of tools for the creation of highly controlled and yet frugal environments capable of holding an entire plant," lead researcher Ludovico Cademartiri said in a statement.

Cademartiri and his team wanted to study how variations in climate and soil characteristics affect root growth. However, such research requires a means to isolate each plant, creating controlled environments that can both scale with the plants themselves and provide a means to see the root structures in detail.

It should be noted that microfluidic technologies can create highly controlled micron-scale environments, but they're expensive and difficult to scale up.

LEGO bricks on the other hand, offer similar capabilities if used to craft the right structures. Kara Lind, an Iowa State doctoral student in materials science and engineering, helped craft the final structures that can both hold gel for germinating plants and allow for the gradual and controlled exposure to certain chemicals - useful for testing plant responses to nutrients and toxins.

"Forget for a minute that they're used as toys," Cademartiri said. "They're actually pieces of high-quality plastic, built to extraordinary standards of precision, that you can use to build stuff.. a good example of how something simple can solve a complex design problem."

The LEGO controlled environments are included in a growing library of frugal but effective tools the team is using, and they hope their success will help other researchers pressed for cash to pursue a similar approach.

The study was published in PLOS One on June 25.