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Gold Nanoparticles To Make Trees Into Street Lights?
Scientists in Taiwan recently found that placing gold nanoparticles in the leaves of the Bacopa caroliniana plants causes them to give off a luminous reddish glow. What would a forest of luminous trees look like?
(Gold nanoparticles could transform trees like this)
“In the future, bio-LED could be used to make roadside trees luminescent at night. This will save energy and absorb CO2 as the bio-LED luminescence will cause the chloroplast to conduct photosynthesis,” Dr. Yen-Hsun Su said in an interview with Chemistry World
This development may make sf movie-goers think of the luminous trees of Pandora in the movie Avatar.
I think that Jack Vance did not forget the beauty of natural light when talking about the amazing house trees of the Iszic in his 1954 classic novel The Houses of Iszm.
There were trees comprised of a central columnar trunk and four vast leaves, arching out and over to the ground to form four domed halls illuminated by the pale green transmitted light.
Via Inhabitat - thanks, Adi, for submitting a tip!
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/11/2010)
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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