Last week, I was scrolling through Facebook and one of the pages I followed had something about bioluminescent trees. I was naturally curious and so clicked on the link and did a little reading.
This. Is. AWESOME!
To make sure it wasn’t too good to be true, I did some more research about bioluminescence technology in general and found that it is a possibility in the future.
So what is this bioluminescence technology?
Bioluminescence technology is the harnessing of the radiance of living things. What brought this idea about is the way that a firefly (lightning bug, as I always heard here in the south) lights up in the night with their bellies. They have this natural ability and it is fortunately very easy to harness.
What causes this bioluminescence?
First, what exactly is bioluminescence itself?
Bioluminescence’s definition is light produced by a living organism.
In the belly of the firefly, a chemical reaction occurs for this light to happen, a light emitting protein (luceferin) is reacts with an enzyme called luciferase, in the presence of oxygen.? Other agents are also present, but these are the three that are necessary for this particular reaction.
In contrast to electrically or thermally generated light, this type of light is cold. Since little heat is present, very little energy is necessary for this type of reaction to occur. (When energy is used, excess energy is released back into the environment as heat.) Because of this lack of energy that is used, this type of reaction can provide groundbreaking work and changes in the environmental sciences because it is conscientious of the environment and conservation of energy.
How would scientists do this with trees?
- Genes would be spliced from lightning bugs and marine bacteria into trees.
- Then, after the splicing was successful, the tree leaves would soak up the sunlight that they naturally do through photosynthesis during the day and cause them to light up at night.
- They could be turned off and on by tinkering with genes that would control the plant’s circadian rhythm.
- All that would be needed for this to work and the trees to thrive would be soil, air, and water- what they need anyway to thrive.
What are the benefits?
The benefits of this would be cost effectiveness and environmentally friendly. The problem that is present, though, is controlling the brightness of the trees but that would also take some tweaking as all things do upon new breakthroughs.
So… Tree Lights?
Yep.
Tree lights, bioluminescence candy and drinks, and many more possibilities are now a possibility in our future!
Edited/Published by: SB
