Turn watercress into ... reading table lamp

Maybe in the future, you will not need to turn on the lights when it is dark but instead, you can read books with bright light emanating from a beautiful potted plant on the desk.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT have taken an important step to make that "utopian" a reality when creating a plant that glows in the dark and has a really attractive appearance.

Lead researcher Michael Strano said: 'Our goal is to create a plant that functions as a table lamp but does not need to be plugged in. The light comes from the exchange of energy inside the tree ".

The glowing tree replaces the light pole on the streets

Plant nanobionics , is a relatively new field of research that Strano's team is considered to be pioneers. Accordingly, plants will be supplemented with new functions by dipping them into different types of nanoparticles.

Watercress can glow in the night like an electric light.(Photo: MIT).

The goal of MIT's team is to add "exotic" functions to plants, from emitting mobile-like signals to being able to act as a street lamp. Previously, they had succeeded in creating spinach capable of detecting explosives, or toxic chemicals such as sarin, as well as plants that could monitor drought and increase energy. productivity for agriculture by optimizing soil quality.

With this new plant, the researchers hope to solve the problem of natural light for houses in dark lanes, helping to reduce costs, saving up to 20% of electricity consumption worldwide.

"These plants can adjust themselves, they are suitable for the external environment and have their own energy," Professor Strano said. "We think this is a perfect solution."

To create this luminous plant prototype, scientists have relied on an enzyme that is familiar to many of us, but not everyone knows the name of this enzyme. It is luciferase, an enzyme that allows fireflies to emit light in the dark night. Luciferase is made up of amino acide like all other proteins and does not produce light. It will oxidize the luciferin molecule causing them to produce light when it decays back to its ground state. In addition, there is another molecule called co-enzyme A, which cleans up the reactants that are a by-product that prevents interactions between luciferase and luciferin.

How to create glowing plants based on the glowing mechanism of fireflies.(Photo: givotniymir.ru).

These components are "packed" into nanoparticles. The researchers used silica nanoparticles about 10 nanometers in diameter to carry luciferase, and used larger particles from PLGA flexible polymers and chitosan to transport luciferin and co-enzymes A.

After packing these compounds into nanoparticles, the team put these particles into a solution. The plant will be submerged into a solution containing nanoparticles, which is then fed into a pressure compressor. High pressure causes nanoparticles to be transferred into plants and over time, these nanoparticles will release molecules into the plant and the cells in the plant will receive molecules. Once in the tree, luciferase and luciferin will begin to react and produce light.

At first, the light only lasted about 45 minutes, but when the process was adjusted, that number jumped up to 3.5 hours. Scientists believe that future improvements can be enough to create a plant that glows for life with just one intervention.

The "lampposts" of the future

Previous studies have documented the results of genetically modified tobacco plants that glow but MIT recognizes that genetic engineering is complex and costly. Meanwhile, the solution for plants to create their own luciferase can be more effective, but the light emitted is very faint and can only be applied to certain types of plants.

MIT's nano-biological approach is considered to be simpler and can be used on any crop. So far, they have successfully tested lettuce, kale, and spinach.

In addition to watercress, American researchers have applied glowing technology to utilize luciferin with spinach and kale. The US Department of Energy is the funding agency for this glowing tree study.

The image of the leaves of the cabbage glows in the night.(Photo: MIT).

For future versions of the technology, the researchers hope to develop a method to paint or spray nanoparticles on leaves and turn old trees into "self-propelled" light columns.

"Our goal is to do only one-off transformation with seedlings or mature trees, and the use will last a lifetime of the plant," said Michael Strano, who led the study, explaining. We really opened the door to the future, where trees will be used as street lights and indirectly illuminate the surrounding houses. '

The researchers also said they could turn off the light by adding nanoparticles carrying a luciferase inhibitor. In the future, the light output of plants may vary depending on environmental conditions, meaning they look perfectly normal during the day but shine brightly at night.