lighting the path to our future

When I was very young, I imagined living in a house that was part organic. In particular, I imagined that bioluminescence would provide a soft glow of night lighting for easy indoor navigation without electrical lighting. Now, we're on the verge of having such capability.

NASA has fluorescing Arabidopsis plants that are used to study plant growth in weightlessness. A geneticist has bioluminescent Arabidopsis plants that are so dim that special equipment is required to detect the light.  Finally, though, a new Kickstarter project proposes inserting "the full luciferin operon" into Arabidopsis plants so they create light that is bright enough to be noticeable to the human eye.  They offer different pledge levels, including $40 for seeds and $150 for a rose that will also bioluminesce.  Pledge here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-plants-natural-lighting-with-no-electricit

Sure, it's not going to cure cancer or feed the hungry, but at least projects like this can finally show that small organizations can "join the club" of biotech and choose their own priorities.  If I were the person setting biotech goals, I would choose these projects:

1. Pick a food plant and engineer it to produce vitamin B12.
2. Pick 3 food plants and engineer them so they complement each other and together produce a nutritionally complete human diet.
3. Pick a tree (probably Baobab) and engineer it to grow hollow to produce a human dwelling space within it.

I think those three targets would quickly benefit humanity across the globe.  Forget Monstanto's crops that are genetically engineered to benefit the mechanisms for producing corporate profit. Instead, let's crowdfund projects that actually benefit humanity without need for profit.

I helped start that revolution by funding this little bioluminescence project.  Change begins somewhere.  :)