• Future Street Lamps: Light-Emitting Plants

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      Permanent link:
      https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/027/01/0087-0092

    • Keywords

       

      Bioluminescence, nanobionics, firefly, luciferin, luciferase.

    • Abstract

       

      Bioluminescence is a chemical phenomenon common in fireflies and aquatic life. A team of MIT engineers has taken the first step towards leveraging this phenomenon using plant nanobionics to create light-emitting trees. These light-emitting trees can serve as our desk lamps or maybe even street lamps in the future. The team has packaged the light-emitting molecules, enzymes, and coenzymes responsible for bioluminescence in living organisms, into nanoparticles and inserted them into plants to perform the chemical reaction, which emits light in the visible region.

    • Author Affiliations

       

      Arpan Banerjee1

      1. Kamrarmath, Cinema Road, Maji Para, Bankura 722 101, West Bengal
    • Dates

       

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