MIT engineers develop plant light sources in the future or replace street lighting [Full text]

The future of science and technology may be illuminated by glowing trees instead of street lights. MIT engineers have created plants with bioluminescence capabilities.

The road ahead may be illuminated by glowing trees instead of street lights. MIT engineers have created plants with bioluminescence capabilities. The researchers infused special nanoparticles into the leaves of watercress, leaving the plant to continuously emit glimmers for the next 4 hours.

To create glowing plants, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used a biological enzyme called luciferase. Luciferase can act on fluorescein molecules, causing it to emit light. Another molecule called coenzyme A helps this luminescent process by eliminating a reaction byproduct that inhibits luciferase activity.

The MIT team loaded these chemical components onto different nanocarriers. Nanoparticles help the enzymes get to the right place in the plant, but also prevent the enzymes from forming a toxic substance that is toxic to the plant. In the end, watercress plants glow like table lamps.

The researchers believe that with further adjustments, this technology can also obtain sufficient brightness to provide illumination for the workplace and even a whole street, as well as for low-intensity indoor lighting. Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "We hope to use plants as a lamp, and such lamps do not need to be plugged in. Lights will eventually come from the energy generated by the plant itself."

He added: “Our research has opened a new door for new streetlights and indoor lighting. This light comes entirely from specially treated plants. The oxidase enzyme made up of luciferase exists in many bioluminescent plants.” Firefly can The light is emitted by a chemical reaction in which luciferin is converted to oxyluciferin by luciferase. This reaction process is very efficient, which means that almost all of the energy involved in the reaction is quickly turned into light.

The loss of lighting accounts for about 20% of the world's energy consumption. Therefore, using light-emitting plants instead of lighting can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. At the time of the project, the researchers were only able to make the plants glow for about 45 minutes and have now been upgraded to 3.5 hours. The brightness of a 10-cm-high seedling of watercress is currently only one thousandth of the brightness required for normal reading, but it can still illuminate the words on the pages.

The MIT team believes that by further optimizing the concentration and release rate of chemicals, it is possible to increase the brightness and duration of the plants. For this technology, the research team hopes to develop a way to print or spray nanoparticles onto the leaves of plants to turn trees or other large plants into light sources.

The researchers also confirmed that they can turn off the plant's luminescence ability by adding nanoparticles that carry a luciferase inhibitor. This makes it possible for them to eventually create a plant that can respond to environmental conditions such as sunlight and turn off the light-emitting function.