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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."

7 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. 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
  2. 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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  3. Laurelin Technologies Inc. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Valar call prior art!

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. 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.
  5. Re:Now... by AmonTheMetalhead · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmmm... catgirls

  6. 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.

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    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  7. 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.

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