Security Bush prototype?

[Vitto]

On a somewhat different note - and looking at the very end of the article - if I'm reading this right it sounds like they are working toward biological alternatives to lithium-ion batteries and platinum in various applications.

Could this mean that biological or carbon nanotube alternatives to the various rare-earths/metals used in modern computer tech might be possible?

You can use a lot of biological stuff to make parts of a battery or any electrical generating system, mostly the cathode or the anode, usually of carbonized organic matter. Truly biological battery are indeed possible (the electric eel was one of the most studied animals since its discovery by the western world for its electrical generating properties), but you have always the problems of performance (energy density at the top), stability and expected life of the system.
For exampe, you can use immobilized bacteria as a bioanode and feed them chemicals to "burn".

Regarding biobased computer I'd like to remember that silicon MOSFET transistor have the non trivial advantage that the current that go through them is both power for the system and signal and it travels to a very high fraction of c.
You can make a DNA computer, but I presume that it will have an advantage in massive parallelization, not speed. And the devil knows what quantum computer and light based system will bring to the table.
IMHO I'm skeptical regarding biobased computing.

Anyway, the use of living matter as a biosensor is quite old. I personally saw the developing of a cheap and crude sensor for testing the levels of nutrients in a soil using a "harp" of tensed cotton wires imbued with chemicals and monitor the time needed for the wire to snap after the bacteria start feeding on it.

Going further still - if you set up an entire ecosystem like this you might end up with a biological angelnet or - jumping to the Avatar universe - Eywa?

Plants, in particular trees, already "talk" a lot to each others via their shared fungi's network that is in symbiosys with their roots. So, you have already a system in place if you want to proevolve trees.

Or am I missing something here (entirely possible)?

“Plants are very good analytical chemists,” explains Professor Michael Strano who led the research. “They have an extensive root network in the soil, are constantly sampling groundwater, and have a way to self-power the transport of that water up into the leaves.”

This is the catch. Plants are very good for this kind of things as they have a lot of system for neutralizing any harmful chemical or elements that their root system can't keep out, so you can use the chemicals they generate as a molecular fingerprint of sort. Quite possible injected nanoparticles that change color with the presence of the chemical in question, it is a standard practice when you genetically engineer plants to turn the affected leaves red to spot, for example.
They are also widely used for bioremediation to drain a soil of toxic metals.

They probably could work as very cheap warning system but I'm not sure about the sensibility.

Scientists have taught spinach to send emails and it could warn us about climate change

But I'm sure that my sensibility towards those who make this kind of title is the one of particularly wicked member of the Spanish Inquisition