May 8, 2013

Genetically engineering trees so they will glow in the dark and replace street lights.

Research by "a small group of hobbyist scientists," funded through Kickstarter.

What a dilemma for environmentalists! All the fossil-fuel burning that could be averted, and yet.... Frankenstein!
Two environmental organizations, Friends of the Earth and the ETC Group, have written to Kickstarter and to the Agriculture Department, which regulates genetically modified crops, in an effort to shut down the glowing plant effort.

The project “will likely result in widespread, random and uncontrolled release of bioengineered seeds and plants produced through the controversial and risky techniques of synthetic biology,” the two groups said in their letter demanding that Kickstarter remove the project from its Web site....

26 comments:

KCFleming said...

I'd rather have glow-in-the-dark cars.

Or maybe once rapists and thieves are convicted, they are given glow-in-the-dark DNA.

sakredkow said...

What could go wrong?

Henry said...

I love the way people who are dedicated to making something controversial then assert that it shouldn't be done because it's controversial.

rhhardin said...

Glow in the dark streetlights would work.

My childhood train set had them.

edutcher said...

Well you already have naturally occurring light in animals, but phx reminds us the tree huggers will freak.

Rusty said...

“will likely result in widespread, random and uncontrolled release of bioengineered seeds and plants produced through the controversial and risky techniques of synthetic biology,”


Reads like the lead in to a science fiction movie.
And just as accurate.



phx said...
What could go wrong?

Suppose you explain it to us.

sakredkow said...

phx said...
What could go wrong?


Holy shit. If you're looking for ME to determine its safety or advisability then you really are screwed. By all means, go forward.

sakredkow said...

Sorry...copying and pasting wrong part of comment, swearing like the devil. Need. coffee.

edutcher said...

phx said...

What could go wrong?

Holy shit. If you're looking for ME to determine its safety or advisability then you really are screwed. By all means, go forward.


Funny how the Lefties freak at anything "environmental", but have no problem "engineering" (and usually screwing up) the world's best healthcare, economy, military, etc.

sakredkow said...

Funny how the Lefties freak at anything "environmental", but have no problem "engineering" (and usually screwing up) the world's best healthcare, economy, military, etc.

Just give me the tools and let me at the healthcare, economic, military, and New Jersey Governor weight-loss plans.

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...


What dilemma? If it helps people, it must be bad.

sakredkow said...

I'll fix it good.

Xmas said...

I just donated! Well...purchased a vase and seeds.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The solution is more movies with special effects like Avatar and Life of Pi.

Peter said...

Frankentrees!

But perhaps annoying for those who enjoy dark-dark at night.

Especially if they start reproducing in the wild.

gerry said...

Heh. As I enter final codgerhood, I'll have to keep a shotgun in the bedroom to kill the glowing, walking trees that break into the compound.

Unless, of course, the final irradiation of the latest litter of shrews finally produces the giant, saber-toothed woodeaters I've been painstakingly working on for the last decade. Then I can sleep peacefully.

bagoh20 said...

What if the Japanese attack by air?

Rusty said...

phx said...
phx said...
What could go wrong?

Holy shit. If you're looking for ME to determine its safety or advisability then you really are screwed.


So you don't why you're worried. Someone just told you to worry.

Matt said...

Have none of you seen "The Wizard of Oz"?! Sure, some of you might be ok with glow-in-the-dark trees hurling nuclear apples at you but I for one am not because of science and stuff.

Mitch H. said...

What could go wrong?

Precious little, actually, especially if they avoid fruit trees for their genetic stock. People have preposterous ideas about how genetics works.

Holy shit. If you're looking for ME to determine its safety or advisability then you really are screwed. By all means, go forward.

So you admit you're a hysterical ignoramus just looking for an opportunity to break out the pitchforks and torches, then?

It sounds like an amusing project, but I doubt it'll pay off. For one thing, bioluminescence in a plant sounds like a formula for pest beaconing, probably not a survivable trait in the wild. I see some crazy people have already experimented with BL tobacco plants. Damn, in 1986! Must have been some reason it's still a novelty.

Geoff Matthews said...

I'm sure that these same environmental groups see no problem in redefining marriage to be between people of the same sex.
After all, what could go wrong?

Anonymous said...

Please, they're not "environmentalists." They're religious zealots who wouldn't know a rational thought if it hit them.

Methadras said...

Where are the leftards over something like this? I don't here the cries of genetically modified tree lamps...

Zach said...

The project “will likely result in a bunch of suckers losing their money.

Fixed.

Sam L. said...

I WANT this! No more running into trees in the dark! No more trees hiding in the darkness, waiting to rob me, beat me, tie me in chains...

Craig Howard said...

They'd really prefer we have no light at all after dark. It just gets harder and harder to hide that.