Trees glowing nanoparticles replace streetlights?

Streetlights are an essential part of any urban landscape, but what if we could replace all of those power hogging lamps with trees that give off a warm red glow?

Dr Yen-Hsun Su from Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University discovered that when you add gold nanoparticles to the leaves of Bacopa caroliniana, it induces a red emission in the chlorophyll. Bacopa caroliniana is a plant widely found in the Southern US, but the same reaction might be possible in other plants and trees. Dr Ye-Hsun points out that this is potentially a win-win-win situation, with the glowing plants reducing power usage, and lowering light pollution, while absorbing CO2.

I just wonder how everything will look under a weird red glow.

Via PopSci