Glowing Plant project

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The Glowing Plant project was the first crowdfunding campaign for a synthetic biology application. The project was started by the San Francisco-based hackerspace Biocurious as part of the DIYbio philosophy. According to the project's goals, funds will be used to create a glowing Arabidopsis thaliana plant, though long-term ambitions include the development of glowing trees that can be used to replace street lights, saving CO2 emissions though not requiring electricity.

Project funding

Using Kickstarter, the project's founders raised $484,000 on June 8, 2013.[1] This was significantly more than the initial target of $65,000.

Controversy

The project generated widespread media attention and a discussion of appropriate uses of biotechnology.[2] As a result of the controversy, Kickstarter decided to prohibit genetically modified organisms as rewards to project backers.[3]

Though the US Department of Agriculture has shown no regulatory concerns about the project, some synthetic biologists and policy researchers have questioned the project's feasibility and impact on future oversight or public opinion of synthetic biology.[4]

The first auto growing plant was created by biotechnology company Bioglow and named Starlight Avatar.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no Electricity by Antony Evans — Kickstarter
  2. ↑ Cha, Ariana Eunjung, “Glowing plants spark environmental debate” The Seattle Times 5 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Why did Kickstarter ban GMOs? | PandoDaily
  4. ↑ Glowing plants spark debate : Nature News & Comment
  5. ↑ First Glowing Plant : GoWeirdFacts

External links

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