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."

Comments

Street lights do NOT waste electricity (yet)

[inviolet]

Unless and until we switch over to electric cars en masse, street lights are NOT wasting electricity.

One of the two primary purposes of street lights is to consume the power generated by base-load powerplants that mu$t spin 24/7. Without our vast numbers of street lights, night-time voltages would rise above 130 and start frying your appliances.

Ever wondered why the electric company does not charge money, if you ask them to add a street light to the pole near your house? That's the reason.

Re:Ha!

[FatdogHaiku]

Well, just because it's non reactive does not mean it's OK in the small sacs (alveoli) of the lung. At about 200 micrometers across, the alveoli make a very good trap for non-dissoluble particulates... and particulates do damage. No data on inhaled gold does not make it OK. Putting anything but air in your lungs will have some consequences.

Plus, people being what they are we would get to a point where someone would want to burn the leaves to recover the gold, messing up the whole CO2 bonus.