Scientists develop glowing plants they hope will replace street lights
- From: news.com.au
- May 09, 2013
- Scientists raising money for glowing plant project
- Hope they'll be bright enough to replace street lights
- Robot insect takes first flight
IMAGINE roads at night, not lit by street lights, but by glowing trees.
Scientists trying to develop glowing plants hope that their luminescent blooms will one day replace electric street lights, and even replace reading lamps in the home.
The Stanford-educated scientists are raising money for the project on crowd-sourcing fundraising site Kickstarter, and have already raised more than $US280,000 - well over the $US65,000 they were aiming for.
Project manager Antony Evans says the DNA sequences for the glowing plants have already been developed - the money raised will be used to print the sequences, insert them into a small plant and then grow it in their California laboratory.