Our understanding of the basic blocks of life is so advanced that we can introduce or take away traits from plants and animal species. Of course, if used for nefarious purposes, that is just horrible.
However, when used to further human knowledge or come up with cool tricks, it showcases human ingenuity. Recently, scientists created gene-hacked glowing plants and they are absolutely gorgeous to look at.
This is straight out of science fiction. You have probably seen such glowing plants in movies or tv shows. Or perhaps you read about them in a science fiction novel and imagined them in your head.
Now, they have become a reality. They are not a new phenomena but the way the latest luminescent plants have been created is unique. It could open up doors for a lot of cool applications.
It was a team of Russian scientists that achieved this feat. They gene-hacked two species of the tobacco plant to make them glow. They used a "fungal bioluminescence system" that turns a common acid found in plants into luciferin. Luciferin is a compound that can generate bioluminescence.
Previously, to create glowing plants, scientists used to inject the plants with certain chemicals. Doing so gave the desired results, but the plants were not able to glow throughout their life.
The new method allows the plants to remain bioluminescent their entire lives. They are able to emit a visible glow that is bright enough to be seen by naked eyes but not bright enough to read a book.
The goal of the scientists is to learn how the metabolism in plants works. They want to study the way they react to their external environment and the effect it has on their metabolism. However, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that we could see them being used as decorations in the future. Imagine a glowing plant in the corner of your room at night!
