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Gold Nanoparticles Turn Trees Into Streetlights

An anonymous reader writes "Street lights are an important part of our urban infrastructure — they light our way home and make the roads safe at night. But what if we could create natural street lights that don't need electricity to power them? A group of scientists in Taiwan recently discovered that placing gold nanoparticles within the leaves of trees causes them to give off a luminous reddish glow. The idea of using trees to replace street lights is an ingenious one — not only would it save on electricity costs and cut CO2 emissions, but it could also greatly reduce light pollution in major cities."

17 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Ha! by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Funny

    I welcome our reddish glowing leafy overlords.

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Ha! by biryokumaru · · Score: 4, Funny

      So our options for carbon-neutral illumination are:

      A - Implant expensive-to-produce gold nano-particles in the leaves of trees
      B - Light them on fire

      Wow.

      --
      When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  2. Even better by Hope+Thelps · · Score: 5, Funny

    A group of scientists in Taiwan recently discovered that placing gold nanoparticles within the leaves of trees, causes them to give off a luminous reddish glow.

    Even better, a group of US capitalists has discovered that setting fire to the trees produces an even more luminous glow, at no cost to the company, keeping the gold available for executive bonuses.

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    To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
  3. Re:Save electricity, sure by SQLGuru · · Score: 2, Funny

    They can probably just harvest the gold they need from all of our e-waste since that proecess is so cheap and good for the environment. It's a win-win.

  4. Re:Deforest the roadways... by snowraver1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Use fir trees. Bonus: Your X-mas tree no longer needs lights!

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  5. Re:Deforest the roadways... by dwywit · · Score: 2, Funny
    1. Buy a broom

    2. ????

    3. Profit!

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    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  6. Gold Trees: Oppulence...I has it by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2, Funny

    But, I also likes savings the electricity

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    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  7. Laurelin Technologies Inc. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Valar call prior art!

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  8. Re:Now... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Look pal, I saw that movie. I'm willing to invite reddish glowing leafy overlords, but I put my foot down at glowing leafy fungal overlords.

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  9. Re:Autumn by cstdenis · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe not where YOU live.

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    1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
  10. Re:Now... by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmmm... catgirls

  11. Re:Now... by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 3, Funny

    All I know is that my corn muffins now come pre-jellied, which saves me precious time.

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    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  12. Re:Now... by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think you are missing that half the posts are talking about splicing, as in grafting one part of a plant on to another plant, and the other half are talking about gene splicing.

    Several posters have confused the two on purpose.

    Now, I need to go finish my recording project where I'm splicing Silver Maple cuttings onto 1/4" CrO2 2-track.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  13. Re:Rube Goldberg Machine by md65536 · · Score: 2, Funny

    To generate the extra CO2 we could always burn some trees.
    Maybe we could use these super-bright trees with some magnifying glasses to start the fires. Then not only does it save billions of dollars per second in electricity costs, but it is also self-sustaining.

    Wait a minute. We could use the light from the super-bright trees to grow more trees! Then we'll have so much extra energy... Maybe we could use it to power fusion devices that turn lead into gold. My god... I think we have the makings of a perpetual motion machine here, one that for once doesn't break any laws of thermodynamics.

    Everything about this story makes sense!

  14. Re:Save electricity, sure by TrancePhreak · · Score: 3, Funny

    CASH 4 GOLD!!!! :D I knew they were up to something.

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    -]Phreak Out[-
  15. Re:Now... by bane2571 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why do all slashdot conversations come back to the Americans?

  16. Re:Unless by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is why "Infinity" is not a "Value".

    This is usually where my head starts to wobble, but if you can have two unequal infinities, doesn't that mean that they have different values?

    See? Right there. Now there's blood coming out of my left ear. This abstract thought stuff is dangerous for me.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.