Why spend space and resources to make and place street lights on roads when there are many perfectly good trees already around roads. A Taiwanese post-doctorate, Yen-Hsun Su, seems to have found a way to use gold nanoparticles to turn trees into street lights. By implanting these particles into certain plants, Su was able to cause a chain reaction that allows the chlorophyll to emit a red-ish glow. He along with his colleagues believe that development in bio luminescence efficiency may eventually lead to environmental protection and energy conservation. The idea is questionable, since Yen-Hsun claims that the use of bio-LED (light emitting diode) has environmental benefits by decreasing CO2 emissions yet these gold particles may effect tree health/growth. Whether or not glowing trees are reliable to light pitch-dark roads is also a problem. Nevertheless, with more research and development, it would be interesting to see our roads lit up by "nature" in a somewhat artistic way (look at the glowing tree picture).
http://www.gizmag.com/glowing-trees-using-gold-nanoparticles/16917/
That sounds like an idea from a sci-fi movie and quite frankly looks really trippy. I highly doubt that this idea could be used on a large scale or be realistically pursued anywhere. Nonetheless it sounds like a cool idea and makes for a cool picture.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that this research is really interesting, and while Yen-Hsun Su is trying to find an application for this technology, I think that it needs to be developed and tested much more before any applications are considered. The idea of using nature to conserve space by not using electricity and installing light poles is really cool, but it has a lot of negative possibilities. First, this infusion could be very detrimental to the health of trees. I'm sure many people would be upset by such a change. And then if this bio-luminescence is safe for the tree, then you have to see how the light from the trees performs. Overall I think it's a cool idea but its too far from reality to be applied as of yet.
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ReplyDeleteWhat is the luminosity of this type of tree?
ReplyDeleteInfusing gold with trees has never been done before and therefore we have no idea how the trees would react to this new stress. I can see environmentalists protesting this. Also, what if these bioluminescent trees start some sort of reaction and this affects some of the other plants around them, or worse, the nations agricultural industry? Playing with nature can be a pretty risky business. Agree with Seth here, this technology doesn't seem like a winner. Glowing trees may be cool in the movies, but their applications in real life may have some major drawbacks.
This reminds me of scenes in the movie Avatar.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, it's amazing how people can engineer DNAs and such nowadays. This is a really cool idea but like the people in the previous comment said, there will be a lot of talk from the environmentalist. Despite that, even if this gets approved, to implement this in real life will take a long time (since trees take a long time to grow), management will not be easy, and the amount of light needed to produce to replace the street lamps is unpredictable. Also, the effects of these will not only change the trees, but also affect the wildlife. The equilibrium of how the world functions will change.
Moreover, getting back to the brightness factor, I feel like in the society that we live in, the light produced form the trees will not be sufficient for us due to our human nature of wanting more. Once this gets implemented, more people in our society will want more light, and in the end,we will use the same amount of energy as before.
Then, wouldn't it be better and faster to just change how our society thinks and acts and try to reduce our carbon footprints?