CANNER
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Join date : 2013-04-30
 |  Subject: Engineers create plants that glow  Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:23 pm | |
| Engineers create plants that glowOriginal article on Phys.org: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - Quote :
- MIT engineers have taken a critical first step toward making that vision a reality. By embedding specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant, they induced the plants to give off dim light for nearly four hours. They believe that, with further optimization, such plants will one day be bright enough to illuminate a workspace.
"The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp—a lamp that you don't have to plug in. The light is ultimately powered by the energy metabolism of the plant itself," says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study.
This technology could also be used to provide low-intensity indoor lighting, or to transform trees into self-powered streetlights, the researchers say. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Glowing vegetables is glowing people. This is fucking dangerous, with giving fucking a whole new meaning. Why dangerous? Because these nanoparticles will be put in the food. People have to eat to live, so they will ingest these light emitting nanoparticles. See the next article what that means...: Carefully crafted light pulses control neuron activity[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - Quote :
- Specially tailored, ultrafast pulses of light can trigger neurons to fire and could one day help patients with light-sensitive circadian or mood problems, according to a new study in mice at the University of Illinois.
Chemists have used such carefully crafted light beams, called coherent control, to regulate chemical reactions, but this study is the first demonstration of using them to control function in a living cell. The study used optogenetic mouse neurons - that is, cells that had a gene added to make them respond to light. However, the researchers say the same technique could be used on cells that are naturally responsive to light, such as those in the retina.
"The saying, 'The eye is the window to the soul' has some merit, because our bodies respond to light. Photoreceptors in our retinas connect to different parts in the brain that control mood, metabolic rhythms and circadian rhythms," said Dr. Stephen Boppart, the leader of the study published in the journal Nature Physics. Boppart is an Illinois professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering, and also is a medical doctor.  | |
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