this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
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Chinese Scientists Made Glowing Plants with Firefly DNA to Replace Streetlights (www.zmescience.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Photos of bioluminescence are always so misleading. There are a few issues that make this completely useless.

  1. The glowing only happens when and where the plant is growing. It does not just always passively emit light from the whole plant. This means the plants are even dimmer in winter, which is when you want the most light.
  2. The glowing is waaaaaaaaaay dimmer than you would think. I bought some of those Petunias and you can only tell that they are different than a normal plant on a summer night with a new moon, or if you cup your hands around them and shove your face into them. If you have enough lighting on to comfortably hang out outside, your lighting will be brighter than the plants.
[โ€“] Napster153@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly, I'd prefer syntheisis between human and nature.

Imagine a safe and reliable wiring that can be attached to trees. We can probably find ways to breed trees that grow a certain way to function as the body of street lamps, if that makes sense.

Plant a tree, relocate after a set amount of time, attach the wiring and lightbulbs, and voila! A streetlamp tree.

Outrageous, but not anymore than any other insanity today.

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