Photos of bioluminescence are always so misleading. There are a few issues that make this completely useless.
- 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.
- 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.
The new generation of ff petunias glow much better, but still not bright enough.
So what your saying is someone needs to invent super steroids for plants or we need to get rid of winter. You’re really out there but I support you and your crazy ideas!
Hear me out: plants grow using carbon dioxide. We should just pump more and more and more of that into the atmosphere until the plants all glow!
I need to see this before I die
I saw an article with the same exact premises back in 2010…
Same people working on it? Was it real back then? Is it real now? Will it ever be real?
You decide! On EPIC PLANT BIOLUMINESCENCE OF HISTORY!!!
Why does this stupid story keep resurfacing. No, you will not light a street with a faint glow.
They’d make a cool walkway border, though.
Not nearly enough light.
yeah this is definitely a case of “let’s do this because it’s fun and try to think of a legitimate use for it later”.
also you can get glowing petunias now from https://light.bio/.
Authenticity Notice: Light Bio does not sell or authorize the sale of seeds. Our bioluminescent technology is available exclusively in live plant form.
seems predatory
I specifically cloned these and cross bred them to give to my friends. They weren’t even that interesting of a plant, the light gimmick is shit, and you can barely see it on a new moon night. But since they told me I wasn’t allowed to propagate it, that was the first thing I did.
They developed the product and deserve to make some money from it.
Also they are purely decorative plants, it’s not like people need these things for food or any other reason. Hard to call that “predatory”.
Actually nature developed most of the product and as a card carrying member of nature, I expect to see my royalties check in the mail soon.
I can imagine a big wall of these, or the next varietal, illuminating a space and making oxygen as well. Maybe not street lights, but definitely night lighting in buildings.
The glow is just barely visible at night with a new moon.
Source: I bought a bunch of these and regret it.
Their new generation glows much better, but not enough for outside replacements. Source: Ive bought both generations!
I see no way this could possibly go wrong.
I see now way this could possibly go wrong. These genes already come from the wild. And these plants would spend lots of the energy they produce on glowing, which is cool for us but a severe disadvantage in the wild. And deer would probably think it’s hilarious to turn glowing plant into glowing poo.
It is possible they’d evolve some some kind of symbiotic relationship with animals over time. Small predatory animals like cats or ferrets might love to hunt in their light and keep them from getting eaten.
“The Last of Us (but everyone glows)” sounds fine at this point.
Could be an issue if sleep masks became useless due to glowing eyelids.
