Gold Nanoparticles Turn Trees Into Streetlights 348
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."
Ha! (Score:4, Funny)
I welcome our reddish glowing leafy overlords.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Informative)
Yes! And the additional health-benefit [nih.gov] of inhaling loose, blowing nano-particles [nanowerk.com] - and the subsequent introduction to the pulmonary systems of city-dwellers [discovermagazine.com] - is surely the cincher on this!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Infinity isn't a number.
Right
If anything, the concept represents a "really really big positive number" in this context, in which case, yes, if you add something greater than 0 to that really really big number, then you will have an even bigger number.
If I remember, and understood, my college math properly:
In mathematics, k+inf. is inf. but you wouldn't represent it that way. It would probably be a limit. So the limit of a+k as a approaches infinity is infinity. Are they the same?
You could consider the limit of (a+k)/a as a approaches infinity, this limit is 1 so it would appear to be the same.
If you consider the limit of (a+k)-a as a approaches infinity then the limit is k so it would appear that they are different.
So I don't think you can say whet
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The interesting thing about "Infinities", is that they are not all created equal.
Take for instance, these two infinite sets:
All even numbers.
All numbers divisible by 4.
the first one is provably larger than the second, while both are infinite quantities. (In fact, the second is a provable subset of the first.)
This is why "Infinity" is not a "Value".
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Gold is non-bioreactive in humans. It won't matter if it enters our lungs, as it doesn't cause any issues.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Informative)
Tell that to the crack heads who destroy a $10,000 air conditioner for $20 in copper.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, 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.
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Interesting)
You're over-reacting.
I mean, they're just talking about making trees luminescent. What could possibly go wrong?
I know it's a triviality to most of us, but I wonder what the birds and insects will think of trees that glow all night? I remember when Chicago went from mercury vapor lights, which were sort of silver, to sodium vapor lights, which were much brighter and a harsh yellow. We lost several species of birds and bats from the entire metropolitan area. That coincided with a huge jump in the mosquito population, which we dealt with by having trucks drive down the streets spraying...something.
But that's a small price to pay if we can save some oil so we can drive giant SUVs for a few more years. I mean, not having birds is one thing, but having to drive a downsized sport-utility vehicle is just too much to bear.
It reminds me that the last time I was in Southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro), there didn't seem to be any songbirds at all left. You found tons of pigeons, but no songbirds. So it goes.
Now... (Score:4, Interesting)
Make it occur naturally.
Or rather - aren't there some kinds of mushrooms and other flora that glow in the dark? Why not just splice that plant with a tree. I know, I use the term splice like its an easy task.
Re: (Score:2)
Make it occur naturally.
Or rather - aren't there some kinds of mushrooms and other flora that glow in the dark? Why not just splice that plant with a tree. I know, I use the term splice like its an easy task.
actually, splicing is fairly easy with trees- or did you mean genetic splicing?
Re: (Score:2)
When you say 'easy', sure, the mechanics of it are pretty simple, but there is a lot of science that goes into figuring out which root stocks are the best for different grafted tops. It's not exactly as simple as "graft random root stock to random top".
I am certainly no expert on the anatomy of mushrooms, but I would imagine that a tree's vascular system is dramatically different than a mushroom. Don't think that would be possible. You would be better off trying to get the mushrooms to simply grow in the w
Re:Now... (Score:5, Insightful)
Mushrooms are fungi and trees are plants... you may as well try and cross a dog with a sunflower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology) [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They've crossed corn with jelly fish. I don't see how this would be any different, fundamentally.
Re:Now... (Score:4, Funny)
All I know is that my corn muffins now come pre-jellied, which saves me precious time.
Re: (Score:3)
We've crossed people and bacteria...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, That would be fungus. We Americans are mushrooms.
Our corporate media keeps us in the dark and feeds us pure bullshit.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"Mushrooms are fungi and trees are plants... you may as well try and cross a dog with a sunflower."
I'm not sure why everyone seems to have scored this comment as insightful, considering that back in 1986 scientists took the "glowing" genes of fireflies and spliced them into the tobacco plant, which resulted in fields of glowing tobacco.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962873-2,00.html
Insects and plants are probably more difficult to splice than fungi and plants, but just guessing...
Re:Now... (Score:5, 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.
Re:Now... (Score:5, Informative)
you may as well try and cross a dog with a sunflower.
Well, looks like it's possible after all. [shopify.com]
Re:Now... (Score:5, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, but they'll have the last laugh when the Ent army rends you limb from limb.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, that is, unfortunately, true. Even if we could work out a GM glowing tree (which I would think is harder than just inserting the GFP gene in it like is usually done in 'glowing' GMOs, I'll have to find out about what photoproteins would actually work), it would still be cheaper to install streetlights than replant the trees every year after someone uproots, chops down, or otherwise destroys them. This is a very sensitive issue for some people (namely, people who haven't the faintest idea what they'r
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
aren't there some kinds of mushrooms and other flora that glow in the dark?
Yeah, but they're not quite as ubiquitous along paths you'd like to light up as -trees- are. They also don't seem to be bright enough.
Why not just splice that plant with a tree
There's the issue of releasing genetically engineered organisms into the environment. If they were spending significant amounts of energy glowing at night, they might not grow as well as normal trees, if you spliced something in to make them artificially competitive you'd worry about that leaking out into other plants.
Re:Now... (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, they're shining high wavelength ultraviolet light at the chlorophyll in the leaves (useless in New England this time of year). This is not an advance in passive lighting but basically a molecular version of putting florescent paint on plants. It is a conversion of projected light. Secondly, the article doesn't state how much UV light is required so there's no way to know whether this is even a reasonable replacement in terms of energy savings (to say nothing of how hard it is to set up gold-leaf trees instead of street lights). That this is even considered a replacement for real streetlights here on Slashdot is a pure flight of fantasy. You might as well talk about how Unicorns will replace chicken as a primary protein source for Americans.
Re:Now... (Score:5, Funny)
Save electricity, sure (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Save electricity, sure (Score:4, Informative)
And it is very cheap.
Re:Save electricity, sure (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, 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.
Re:Save electricity, sure (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah because mining gold and refining it and the turning it into nano-particles takes zero energy....
Wrong question.
The question is whether it use less energy than mining, refining, manufacturing natural resources into compete LED based solutions, and then deploying and running them.
Re:Save electricity, sure (Score:4, Insightful)
Regardless of the facts, if they use the same "math" they use to figure out the ecological footprint of things like commercial biofuel production, hybrid and electric vehicles, and other green technologies, it'll undoubtedly be "better".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Deforest the roadways... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be chopping down trees everywhere!!!!
Nah, I know the particles are so small it would make the effort a waste of time. That aside, on a serious note, what happens to the "streetlights" when the Fall comes each year?
Re:Deforest the roadways... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
2. ????
3. Profit!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
The plant these guys used in TFA is a perennial, so it's not going to matter until they can figure out how to do the same in a large tree. At that point, I would imagine they would focus efforts on broadleaf evergreens (boxwoods, euonymous, some others). I don't know why conifers wouldn't be possible either, there's just generally a much lower surface area.
What the hell?!?!?! C'mon!!!! There's a rule here against RTFA!!!!
Oh, wait... I forgot... The rule actually is:
- one set of people here needs to NOT RTFA
- the other set has to RTFA so they can tell the first group of people they shoulda RTFA.
Next week I think I am in the "Must RTFA" group.
;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That aside, on a serious note, what happens to the "streetlights" when the Fall comes each year?
Doesn't really matter here in the Southwest, as fall and winter together seem to last about a month.
Sure it does... one still has to "re-gold" the trees each year. And a month of no streetlights on streets that are required to have them every night is also problematic (lawsuits, fines, etc).
Autumn (Score:5, Insightful)
The nice thing about street lights, though, is that they don't fall off every autumn.
Re:Autumn (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe not where YOU live.
Even better (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.
When I Was a Kid (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was a kid, sprinkling heavy metals around was considered a bad thing.
My, how times change.
-Peter
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Gold is a "heavy metal", but it's non-toxic. That's why they can make dental crowns out of it.
There are many reasons why this is a stupid idea, but that isn't one of them.
Re: (Score:2)
Just goes to show what you can learn by posting snarky comments on slashdot!
-Peter
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Drinking it won't harm you, too. [wikipedia.org] Well, sort of...
PS. Street lighting is as much about perception of safety (drinking the above helps also with that BTW). Even if I'd like something which impacts night vision less (red light is a very good direction)...many people probably wouldn't. In truth, it could complicate effectiveness of stop lights. Some people could also get the idea that it's a conspiracy to turn everything into red districts...
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not bothered about street lighting for reducing crime -- I use it to see my way home when it's dark!
Re: (Score:2)
Same thing applies, too often people want to trick themselves into almost daylight-like perception, "the more the better."
Winter? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can see at least one problem with this idea...
Necron69
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
For a second I thought you were saying Necron69 was the problem
Fluorescence effect (Score:5, Informative)
So it appears as though the effect requires an outside energy source to be useful. Nothing to see here, move on.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. A very very small portion of the UV light will end up actually causing fluorescence. At least with standard fluorescent bulbs, almost all of the UV light will be converted. This is more more like using a spotlight pointed up at the sky that's shining on confetti to light the surroundings.
Re:Fluorescence effect (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing to see here, move on.
Furthermore, if this isn't immediately obvious to anyone, the photos in TFA are not of the fluorescence. Some of them are near-infrared photos of trees, and the others look like a tree illuminated at night by conventional lighting.
Definitely nothing to see here.
Re: (Score:2)
The moon reflects a fair amount of UV back to the earth. Never had a moon tan before?
Re: (Score:2)
Not much sunlight at night, which is when you'd really want these things.
save money? (Score:2)
I am sure that gold nanoparticles in leaves that need to be replaced at least once a year are going to be really cheap. Plus if you RTFA, they need to shine a black light on the trees to get them to glow and that will suck up a lot more power than the LEDs that glowing trees could replace.
Energy for the tree? (Score:2)
Awesome. (Score:4, Interesting)
I am speaking strictly out of self-interest here when I say this would be incredibly awesome.
As someone who's family has been in the tree business for a few generations, I would love our products to have a new utility that people actually see as practical. Currently, not many consumers understand that trees are not just for aesthetics, but can provide many practical benefits. Make 'em light up and people (municipalities, really) will be all over 'em.
Wait, what the... ?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
> but it could also greatly reduce light pollution in major cities.
By replacing street lights with a different kind of street light? One without an apparent "off" switch?
It would seem to make more sense to just reduce the number of lights, or make them smart enough to be on-demand.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes we get it, gold nanoparticles make cool effects - but they will do absolutly nothing else - its not cheaper, environmentally friendly or reduces light pollution.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Read the article. The trees don't just glow...they glow because a UV light is shining on it, converting the UV to visible, similar to a standard fluorescent light...except with a standard light, you get nearly all of the UV interacting with the fluorescing particles...and it doesn't have to go through glass, which isn't so good/cheap at transmitting UV.
Hey I have an idea (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure its cheaper and more environmentally friendly then inserting Gold Nanoparticles and then shining light with a specific wavelenght.
Is this really bioluminescence? (Score:5, Informative)
The article says:
...A lot of light emitting diode, especially white light emitting diode, uses phosphor powder to stimulate light of different wavelengths. However, phosphor powder is highly toxic and its price is expensive. As a result, Dr. Yen-Hsun Wu had the idea to discover a method that is less toxic to replace phosphor powder. ...
By implanting the gold nanoparticles into the leaves of the Bacopa caroliniana plants, the scientists were able to induce the chlorophyll in the leaves to produce a red emission. Under a high wavelength of ultraviolet light, the gold nanoparticles were able to produce a blue-violet fluorescence to trigger a red emission in the surrounding chlorophyll.
So it sounds like the trees need a "high wavelength of ultraviolet light" to get them to glow. Seems like they are just replacing the phosphor that makes a white LED glow with these gold implanted leaves. But you'd still need a UV light source (which could be an array of UV LED's?).
I'm not sure that this is really an environmental win -- replacing an array of white LED's that last 10 years with an array of UV LED's that point to trees that need their leaves to be impregnated with gold (and replaced annually?) doesn't sound all that environmentally friendly. How bad is the LED phosphor for the environment?
Re:Is this really bioluminescence? (Score:4, Informative)
How did this story make it into the news stream? Why can't my goofy half-baked ideas get me fame and fortune?
Re: (Score:2)
Unless we're trying to make the world look like Avatar, I just don't see the point. Somebody else's idea to genetically manipulate plants to produce natural phosphorescence makes quite a bit more sense (and likely quite a bit harder).
Nothing to see here, move along.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless we're trying to make the world look like Avatar
That might have been the point of this research...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The article (more of a quick summary) doesn't really say specifically what wavelength of UV is needed for the stuff to glow, but if the wavelength needed is what makes it to the Earth's surface from the Sun, that could explain their excitement.
Also, it seems some of the interest comes from the luminescent leaves absorbing their own light back in for photosynthesis. I wish that article were more in depth, since it seems we're getting half the story.
...and what about the UV lamp? (Score:4, Informative)
Once again, proof that journalists should just stick to describing the research rather than coming up with groundbreaking applications which, as you'd almost certainly expect, don't work. The nanoparticles don't make the leaves glow "naturally", you have to shine UV light on them. Then they fluoresce red. But if you want to light streets using this technology, can I recommend just coating the UV light with leaves and doing away with the tree (we don't want to waste UV light after all)? In fact, ignore the leaves - just use a fluorophore. Actually, better yet, why not use a fluorophore that doesn't emit red light? How about something more akin to natural light, like yellow? And make it sensitive to blue light rather than UV (because generating UV is harder). And finally, while we're at it, make the light source solid-state.
Congratulations, you've just invented the white LED.
Re: (Score:2)
just use a fluorophore. Actually, better yet, why not use a fluorophore that doesn't emit red light?
To be fair, the article did answer your question:
However, phosphor powder is highly toxic and its price is expensive.
It's not clear that replacing the fluorescing phosphor coating and an entire tree is really a better solution, but they did say why they want to replace the phosphor.
Ultraviolet light (Score:3, Interesting)
They are shining an ultraviolet light on the trees, with the gold particles they are glowing red by transforming the ultraviolet to red light.
neat, but kinda useless as ultraviolet is dangerous. (not useless on a small scale; but you can't go and light up a neighbourhood with ultraviolet)
Gold Trees: Oppulence...I has it (Score:3, Funny)
But, I also likes savings the electricity
Laurelin Technologies Inc. (Score:5, Funny)
Also, screw up the nature !!! (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
We are causing sixth extinction event as is anyway; I'm quite willing to accept that such tinkering with city trees won't make much difference.
I can wait! (Score:2)
Trees shed leaves all the time. How many baskets of leaves will it take to contain one ounce of gold? I can hardly wait.
Somewhere... (Score:2)
... an astronomer's head just exploded.
How much light pollution with these emit?
oh really? (Score:5, Insightful)
"...not only would it save on electricity costs and cut CO2 emissions, but it could also greatly reduce light pollution in major cities."
What a stupid thing to say. If they provide enough light to replace street lights, then they contribute just as much to light pollution as the street lights do.
Rube Goldberg Machine (Score:2)
We can use an oak tree, with gold injected into it's leaves, a high power UV light generator to induce a reddish glow and a variable CO2 generator to adjust brightness.
Re: (Score:3, 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
Street lights do NOT waste electricity (yet) (Score:5, Interesting)
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: (Score:2)
Worst case - it can be stored (and is) in pumped-storage hydroelectric facilities.
Re: (Score:2)
That is the best case. Those things are expensive to build, and can't be built just anywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Thermodynamics would like to disagree with out.
Especially given the typical HID only emits about 30% of power drawn as light, the rest is heat and non-visible wavelengths. The surface of said bulbs hits almost a thousand degrees.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh, I have a streetlight on the power pole in my backyard, which AEP charges me around 9 bucks a month to power. It's their light, on their pole, but they charge me to power it. Sounds like I'm being ripped off.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The electric company has no problem dealing with low total loads. The only problem is when the load is unpredictable or changes quickly. The biggest generators take a while to spin up/down. Night time tends to be a fairly predictable change though so city lights aren't really burning "free" electricity.
Might work for part of the year (Score:2)
This might work for part of the year, but what about the time from November through April when most trees have lost their leaves? Also, how much energy will be needed to collect all of those fallen leaves since gold, like oil, is not a limitless resource.
Excuse me, I have a question: (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, is this healthy for the tree? More to the point, can you get the tree to grow with this feature as a natural part of it's genetic makeup?
Sorry to sound cynical but this sounds like another one of those "news" stories that exist solely to get attention, not because it's about anything really practical.
Great Idea (Score:3, Interesting)
We know that silver does this [prince.org]. I've always wondered what gold would do.
Re: (Score:2)
Having tested this on trees just a couple of feet from my balcony, I have caused earlier leafbud formation and much fuller development of early foliage by irradiating the tree with red and blue light.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If you tell them the leaves are full of gold nanoparticles, I guarantee you that the leaves won't make it to autumn. Heck this is much easier than stealing copper from a utility pole.
But don't worry, the Bacopa caroliniana plant they mention isn't a tree, it's a little herb no taller than 50cm and oh, it usually only grows underwater. Instead of lighting up cities possibly they can light up your aquarium. Long way to go before showing this can actually work in trees...