Creating Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no Electricity

[Bonobo]

http://www.vyralize.com/1961/creating-glowing-plants-natural-lighting-with-no-electricity/


Using Synthetic Biology, a group of independent scientists are working on plants that can produce its own light without electricity.
Headed up by Antony Evans, Kyle Taylor, and Omri Amirav-Drory, the small team of scientists have raised over $433k since the glowing plant project’s inception on Kickstarter. The team’s goal at this stage is to develop plants that can produce natural and sustainable light without any external intervention (e.g. an electric source).

What they plan to do is copy and paste the ‘glowing’ genes from bacteria or fireflies, and using software like Genome Compiler, they will then synthesize the DNA and transform it into a glowing plant. Once they grow the glowing plant, they will then collect the seeds and send them off to those who sponsored the project. They have already created the DNA chains necessary to be embedded into the plants, but need $65,000 worth of funding to actually synthesize the product. With just 3 days left on the project, they’ve garnered so much interest that they may expect to see over $433,000 in funding.

At the moment, they are looking to output light that has a brightness comparable to glow in the dark paint, but their long term is to develop a framework that can lead to plants potentially replacing artificial light sources like light bulbs found in our rooms or even higher output street lights.

For those pledging $40 and over, the team plans to send packets containing 50-100 seeds which can then be grown at home, and those pledging $150 and over will receive a glowing rose as well as part of their stretch goal.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. Your suggesting the wide use of gentically modified plants.

Even it we aren't going to eat them, it would face a huge backlash.

But it is a great idea.