Glow-In-the-Dark Plants

MIT Researchers Want to Make Glow-In-the-Dark Plants

It's a nice idea, but it might not work.

SEON-YEONG KWAK

By Avery Thompson

Imagine a plant that glows like a flashlight, letting you read in the dark without spending a penny on electricity. We could grow these plants everywhere, lighting up the night without burning fuel to do it. It’s a beautiful fantasy, and one group of MIT researchers wants to make it happen. The only problem: it’s probably not actually possible.

A group of MIT researchers have managed to make some plant leaves glow by incorporating a firefly enzyme called luciferase. In fireflies, luciferase binds to another chemical called luciferin, which causes a reaction that emits light. The researchers figured out how to get the luciferase and luciferin into plant leaves, which then glow with a dim light.


The researchers believe they can improve this reaction to the point that light-up plants can illuminate entire rooms. The researchers are even toying with the idea that glowing trees could replace street lights, which would save electricity and money. It’s a nice idea, but not the first time someone’s promised glowing plants. It didn’t end well before, and it’s unlikely to end well this time, either.

A few years ago, a startup called Glowing Plants launched a campaign on Kickstarter to make plants that could glow in the dark using the same luciferase reaction. Four years after raising $500,000, they found glowing plants are a little harder to make than they expected, and their plan didn’t work out. At best, they could make plants that glowed very faintly, but not enough to illuminate anything.

The MIT researchers are using a different method to produce their glowing plants. The Kickstarter group went for a genetic solution, while the MIT group opted for embedding the proteins directly into the plants. The end result, however, is essentially the same. So far, the MIT researchers have managed to make plants that give off only a thousandth of the light required for reading.

It’s possible that with more research, the scientists might be able to improve their method. The researchers are optimistic that they’ll be able to make brighter plants soon, and they’re hoping to adapt their current method of embedding the proteins—which involves soaking the leaves in a high-pressure solution filled with nanoparticles—into some kind of spray-on coating or paint.

Even if they succeed, glow-in-the-dark plants are unlikely to ever be as bright or as cheap as efficient LED lighting. No matter how cool glowing plants would be, you’ll probably never be able to completely rely on a living desk lamp.

Source: MIT