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from the perpetual-motion^W-lighting-machine dept.
Engineers create plants that glow
Imagine that instead of switching on a lamp when it gets dark, you could read by the light of a glowing plant on your desk. MIT engineers have taken a critical first step toward making that vision a reality. By embedding specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant, they induced the plants to give off dim light for nearly four hours. They believe that, with further optimization, such plants will one day be bright enough to illuminate a workspace.
"The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp — a lamp that you don't have to plug in. The light is ultimately powered by the energy metabolism of the plant itself," says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study.
This technology could also be used to provide low-intensity indoor lighting, or to transform trees into self-powered streetlights, the researchers say.
Also at TechCrunch and New Atlas.
A Nanobionic Light-Emitting Plant (DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04369) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @05:49PM (1 child)
i have a bug in the garden. at night i can see its bum-like-bum part glow in the dark. it think it's generally called a "glow-bug".
however this name doesn't ring any much bells on the google search engine, so i would like to inquire if anyone has any data on this flyable
insect: what does it eat, where does it like to breed, what to avoid. along these lines.
so far, i have not been very diligent in observing this creature (my long dead bio prof would give me a solid F-(+) (extra solid fail)) but i was thinking that it must be close to a cockroach in habitat, mating and .. maybe food? though for some strange reason, i get the feeling that it likes to eat poop from other animals .. maybe it's because of the requirements of the light-emitting luciferasis enzyme?
also i think it is VERY susceptible to any, even natural, pesticides.
so long story short: any info on making my "glow-bug" population grow and thrive would be most welcome!
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Monday December 18 2017, @08:54PM
Does it look anything like a firefly? [wikipedia.org]
If so, the larvae eat other insects, worms, and slugs. Depending on the species, the adults will eat either nothing, nectar from flowers, or in one case members of other firefly sub-species. Source [animals.mom.me]
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin