Collaborating scientists from Universities in Korea and the US have created microchips about the size of a grain of sand which are designed to be deployed remotely to monitor severe weather and the outbreak of disease.
The cost effective microstructures could potentially be deployed thousands at a time and are modeled aerodynamically after wind-dispersed seeds like the dandelion or jacaranda.
The team has said that making the fliers environmentally friendly is a real concern and will make sure this is the case before any large scale deployment.