By Thibault Costet , Reunion Island June 9 , 2019
Imagine that instead of switching on a lamp when it gets dark , you could read by the light of a glowing plant on your desk . Or imagine that the streets are illuminated by plants ! That is an ecological way to get light but it seems to be incredible !
MIT engineers introduced nanoparticles into creson leaves . They have subsequently give the light during 4 hours .
How it works ?
To create their glowing plants , the MIT team used the luciferase , the enzyme that gives fireflies their glow . Luciferase acts on a molecule called luciferin , causing it to emit
light .
The MIT team packaged the luciferase into a nanoparticle carrier . To get the particles into plant leaves , the researchers first suspended the particles in a solution . Plants were immersed in the solution and then exposed to high pressure , allowing the particles to enter the leaves through pores called stomata . Once inside , the nanoparticles released luciferin , and luciferase , an enzyme that works on luciferin to make it glow . In this way , the light was powered by the metabolism of the plant itself . MIT postdoc Seon-Yeong Kwak is the lead author of the study , which appears in the journal Nano Letters .
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