Rose-Marie and Ghislain are working on a dream. They want to fill our towns with plants that glow in the dark – that would clean our air, guide us home at night and be, simply, beautiful. It sounds like a fantasy film. But maybe not for much longer…
Our cities use a lot of electricity to light the streets and they also lack enough greenery to clean the air and help people feel better.
Luminescent plants can help light the streets, clean the air, cheer people up – and they don’t need any electricity!
Rose-Marie et Ghislain Auclair offer lots more background on their project on the website of their company Woodlight, which is in French.
WoW! declares an interest in the project in that Woodlight has been helped by SEMIA, the startup incubator in Strasbourg where WoW! is currently based. It is a link of which we were unaware when we began researching this article.
Other researchers around the world are also working on creating bioluminescence in plants. This paper in the journal Nature last year describes work by Moscow-based startup Planta. The Guardian spoke to its London-based CEO for this article.
And finally, for a bit of a wow factor, have a look at this National Geographic slideshow of creatures that glow in the dark…
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