Roads of the future could be lit by glowing trees instead of streetlamps, thanks to a breakthrough in creating bioluminescent plants. Experts injected specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant, which caused it to give off a dim light for nearly four hours. This could solve lots of problems.
The chemical involved, which produced enough light to read a book by, is the same as is used by fireflies to create their characteristic shine. To create their glowing plants, engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) turned to an enzyme called luciferase. Luciferase acts on a molecule called luciferin, causing it to emit light.
Read the full article at The Space Academy.
Very true, and Lucifer apparently was the classical Roman name for the Morning Star, aka the planet we now call Venus. It doesn’t HAVE to have an ‘evil’ connotation.
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Injecting living things with enzymes called Luciferase… what could go wrong? Not that streets lit by glowing trees wouldn’t be far more scenic and evocative than anything a streetlamp could produce.
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LOL, I was amused by the name too! But of course it comes from the original meaning of the name Lucifer, which is “light-bringer,”
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