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GlowingPlant53 karma

Actually there are several ideas we have for how to reduce light pollution. The most promising is to only express light in the bottom of the plant's leaf, so it's only reflected down.

There are also ways to turn the light on and off using different promoters. The most fun is one which responds to touch just like in avatar!

GlowingPlant31 karma

Maybe :)

GlowingPlant23 karma

Initially, not very bright. We are aiming for a plant which glows like glow in the dark paint. Longer term however when we really get into the metabolic engineering I think a plant could be as bright as a bulb... the question is how big a plant we need. I'd hope for a Christmas tree sized plant to be able to replace a 100 watt bulb.

GlowingPlant15 karma

I think this could be one of the most trans-formative applications of the technology. Lighting has been shown to have many benefits to reducing crime and improving quality of life and there are large parts of the world which lack night lighting (just look at a photo of Africa at night). Tropical countries, with ample sunlight and equal day night lengths, are ideally suited for this technology so I think it could be something which finds acceptance there before more developed nations.

GlowingPlant14 karma

That's a good question. Chances are our glowing plants will be much less bright than a full moon. And the brighter we can make them, the less likely they will be able to compete in the wild. So the concept of brightly glowing plants spreading rampant and causing light pollution and affecting insect populations is highly unrealistic.

Insects would have as much trouble with our plants as with the actual street lights the glowing plants are replacing. Probably far less, because the light producing surface would be much more spread out than you'd get with a light bulb.