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posted by martyb on Monday December 18 2017, @09:14AM   Printer-friendly
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)


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  • (Score: 2) by Snospar on Monday December 18 2017, @11:21AM (2 children)

    by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 18 2017, @11:21AM (#611334)

    I read "Nanoparticles Can Make Plants Grow" and thought "Meh, pretty sure they were doing that before without assistance".

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @12:33PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @12:33PM (#611357)

      As their metabolic energy is used for this gimmick (even more if there is no off-switch), I even expect that the plants will grow worse (and more susceptible to pathogens).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @12:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @12:22PM (#611351)

    Yes, I really want CIA and Mossad-engineered custom nanoparticles on my desk, don't I? Totally harmless, right?

    Has anything the CIA and the Israeli (Khazaria) Mossad ever brought anything to the world except totally unnecessary death and suffering of the innocent and helpless?

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @01:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @01:45PM (#611377)

    As long as the streetlight-trees generally send their light down (leaving dark skies), I think this would be very neat. It's the sort of thing I'd expect in the future world of Jeph Jacques http://www.alicegrove.com/page/220 [alicegrove.com] (first page of the graphic novella).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @03:34PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @03:34PM (#611420)

    Slave light for the slave masters watching over the slave workers. What? The plants aren't complaining...

    Incidentally, I'd like to read about the first person to run a greenhouse using these LEPs. Maybe they'll use the LEPs to grow more LEPs!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @05:49PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @05:49PM (#611493)

    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

      by Zinho (759) on Monday December 18 2017, @08:54PM (#611565)

      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
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