Science TED Talk Bioluminescence
by Derek on Jun.17, 2011, under Science
My Science TED talk on Bioluminescence in plants. Enjoy! Leave a comment! Your opinion matters
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June 18th, 2011 on 3:57 AM[...] Derek discusses biolumminescences [...]
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June 19th, 2011 on 1:44 PM
I think that this topic should be investigated more by scientists – there could be many uses for the chemicals! If we could find out how to cage them into a container or something, we wouldn’t need to use up energy for our light. Maybe all it takes is adopting a pet glowfish to cut your energy bill in half! We could even potentially find new uses for the lighting chemicals. This is a great topic that could have some scientific breakthroughs in the near future!
June 19th, 2011 on 4:35 PM
Good job Derek. I like how you used the slides to illustrate key points, but didn’t have the powerpoint running the whole time like I did. You said bioluminescent plants can photosynthesis without sunlight right? Can a non-bioluminescent plant photosynthesis (without sunlight) if a bioluminescent plant is beside them? O is the glow not strong enough? Also, does emitting light in the form of bioluminescence use energy? Or is the genetic makeup such that the plant doesn’t need extra energy to emit light?
I enjoyed listening to your talk, it was really interesting and informative. Good job.
-Michelle
June 19th, 2011 on 7:18 PM
A very unique and fascinating topic, Derek! You researched and presented our TED Talk really well. I agree with Macguire, this could completely revolutionize the way we use light and grow crops! The concept of splicing genes into other plants that aren’t originally bioluminescent in order to make them bioluminescent is really quite something. But what if this idea skyrockets, and we end up running out of bioluminescent genes to splice in? Our whole civilization by then would be dependent on this form of light, so what do you think would be done when we run out of genes? Another question is, since splicing can clearly be done on plants, what do you think are the chances and success rates of splicing bioluminescent genes into other organisms, say.. humans?
June 19th, 2011 on 11:42 PM
Hey Derek!
I was wondering, is it possible to extract or create the chemicals by themselves? It could be a really clean source of light, especially with the world worrying about the dimishing amount of resouces. Also, are there any side-effects of having the plant’s genes spliced with a bioluminescent plant’s? Also, would you happen to know if there is a limit to how brightly a plant could grow? And one more thing (sorry); is there any correlation with how many nutrients the plant has and how bright the plant is?
Awesome Ted Talk, Derek!
June 20th, 2011 on 12:06 AM
Hey Macguire, Lamps fuelled by Luciferin and Luciferase are not very practical because it would require both chemicals to be constantly produced. The only reason the that Bioluminescence in nature uses those two chemicals is because those chemicals are organic and are not detrimental to the organisms health. To put this into perspective, using hydrogen peroxide and phenyl oxalate ester mixed with a fluorescent dye, which is much easier to produce than the many different structures of Luciferin and Luciferase, would work much better, it’s just that organic organisms cannot have these in it’s body. Electrical light for use by humans for exploring the dark will remain for a long time.
June 20th, 2011 on 12:13 AM
Hey Derek! First off, amazing topic and points. As light sources, I’m impressed on how much you were able to find regarding bioluminescent plants. However, I’m interested on if there are any side effects to consumption of plants with their genes altered in such ways, and long-term effects to the plants themselves and the offspring they produce.
I think plants growing off their own light is a very interesting thought. Aside from the (very) potential food shortage solution, scientists could very well recreate Pandorum
However, I just listened to Stephanie’s talk regarding light and how it affects your sleep. Basically, melatonin is a sleep-inducing chemical naturally released into your body in darkness. If it’s light out, less melatonin is released and therefore, the harder it is to sleep. I was wondering how glowing plants would be able to simply “overgrow” (pun intended) lightbulbs aside for eternity. Would they have a mechanism that would allow them to “turn off” their luminescence? I can think of a few solutions to that, such as putting it into a box for the night, but it would be very troublesome to wake up in pitch darkness with the sudden urge to go pee, only to remember that your faithful lightbulb that you can turn on at will is now no longer quite as faithful, and shut away in a box so that you can get a decent night’s sleep.
Great job!
June 20th, 2011 on 12:14 AM
At Michelle:
Thanks! It took some editing to get all those slides to appear at the right time haha. Yes, Bioluminescent plants can photosynthesise without sunlight. If a non-Bioluminescent plant was to be placed beside a bioluminescent plant, the non-bioluminescent plant would benefit to a degree from the light energy released by the bioluminescent plant, it would not be as beneficial as having it’s own bioluminescent light, but there would be some benefits. This idea could be implemented to ease the concerns of people in the future who are sceptical about the toxicity of Luciferin and Luciferase. Brightly glowing bioluminescent plants could be used to help power other (non-bioluminescent) plants to grow like a power plant (haha that was a pun). This way plants can still benefit from bioluminescence, and at the same time ease the concerns of health fanatics everywhere.
-Derek
June 20th, 2011 on 12:21 AM
Albert:
not judging anyone who does though!
If the idea of bioluminescent plants sky-rockets so will the production of bioluminescent plants. This offers more host organisms to splice genes from, therefore the relation between genes available and demand is not a major concern. In answer to your second question, the side effects of being bioluminescent are not yet known in humans (obviously) but I hypothesize that a bioluminescent human would have a VERY high metabolism because the production of Luciferase and Luciferin need to be produced anytime bioluminescent light is produced. Also on a side note, the percentage of the human population that would actually want to be bioluminescent will remain the a very small minority for a very long time.
June 20th, 2011 on 12:33 AM
There is no need to extract the chemicals from the organisms because scientists are able to produce the organic compounds artificially. But if for some weird reason we really needed to take samples from an organism I think it would be very possible to remove Luciferin and Luciferase from an organism. Whether it can be done without harm to the organism is another issue. Many live animals have light emitting organs that have a reserve of Luciferin and Luciferase, removing that organ would count as extracting the chemical right? Also there are certain deep sea marine organisms that use bioluminescent as a means of repulsion and protection. Some types of squid can actually squirt out luciferin and luciferase into the water to create a cloud of glowing chemicals (http://www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_glowing_life_in_an_underwater_world.html). Lastly I think that the limit to how bright an organism can glow is dependant on how fast the luciferin is used up as it is oxidized, the more luciferase to speed up the reaction the brighter it will be. To your last question, the more nutrients the plant has the more of the bioluminescent chemicals can be produced therefore the brighter the plant grows. There is no confirmed ratio because different structures of luciferin and luciferase react differently and with different intensities and colours.
-Derek
June 20th, 2011 on 1:10 AM
Great TED Talk Derek!
It was so well-researched and examined, in fact, that as I was searching for possible questions on the we it was very difficult for me to find a point that you had not covered. Scientists have been striving to find a substitution for unrenewable energy sources such as electricity for decades. Just like Jonathan’s topic, antimatter, though, it seems that the technology that scientists currently have is still in its developing stages and is very inefficient. I was wondering, what are the by-products of the reaction? If they aren’t harmful, Bioluminescence can be a great natural substitution for electricity. I remember watching a “Nature of Things” documentary by David Suzuki that talked about Bioluminescence. There is a gargantuan amount of deep sea life that has not been discovered. As technology improves scientists can explore further depths of the ocean and the prowling, energy-rich marine life that is available for our use. Another question I had was did you consider the ethical side to harnessing the energy of bioluminescence? We, as humans, will be utilizing the energy of other organisms for our own purposes. A connection that can be made is the Matrix from when we did our novel study unit in English. What is your opinion about the ethics of this topic?
June 20th, 2011 on 1:27 AM
Hey derek, good job on your TED talk, and research. It was pretty interesting. Although, It was a little slow paced and I had to kind of work my way through it.
So, with the use of bio-luminescent plants in everyday life, I’m wondering, is it possible to make any plant bio-luminescent? (Giving any plant the ability to create those chemicals) It wasn’t 100% clear in your video. Either way, It’s still an extremely remarkable thing to accomplish.
-Clay
June 20th, 2011 on 1:57 AM
Hey Derek, Interesting topic
I studied bioluminescence in angler fish last year! Based on the facts I heard it sounds like quite a lot of energy is required just to power one of these bioluminescent plant farms, so is it really worth it in the end? The idea of glow in the dark street trees seems awesome (like avatar) but what if some of these bioluminescent plants were to spread out of a farm or house and into the environment? Surely it would set off some emotion in the animals surrounding it. Right now the whole idea seems like a lot of work and research on how to control and use these new findings in the best and most efficient way but i think some day in the future maybe this will be possible and highly useful.
June 20th, 2011 on 2:46 AM
Immy:
Cool! I think you may have misheard what I said, the bast light arrays were for NON-bioluminescent underground farms, to power it you only need to supply it nutrients. Therefore, this opens up the possibility of it being used as a gigantic composter, with interest! Being bioluminescent is draining on metabolism of the organism but if plants are provided with enough nutrients it will be able to maintain the glow. Whatever energy costs going into constructing the farm will pay for itself the longer the farm is operational. It is not very likely for bioluminescent plants to spread into the wild because humans generally do not consume species of plants that can spread rapidly like wildfire. Furthermore the plants with bioluminescent genes spliced into them are all good to eat, therefore will be a target for animals, they would not last very long in the wild, especially with their high demand for nutrient rich soil.
-Derek
June 22nd, 2011 on 6:03 PM
I really found your topic interesting. I enjoyed listening to this. I think that scientists could definitely use the bioluminescent chemicals to help them along. It’s an all around good topic and I think that looking into this could actually benefit the world. Really great job.
Kelsey