i'm so hyped for genetically engineered houseplants and pets
our homes are literally gonna look like Avatar
example: this is a petunia with mushroom DNA that glows in the dark every single night (and you can already buy one)
yes, the light comes straight from the plant's own living cells (no batteries / no paint / no black light)
that's because a startup called Light Bio put the genes of glowing wild mushrooms inside it
every plant already makes the stuff those genes need, so the petunia keeps making its own light for as long as it's alive
right now in person it's a soft glow, it looks like moonlight
but they teamed up with Ginkgo Bioworks (OpenAI partner btw) to make plants that glow at least 10x brighter
together they're testing new versions of the glow genes to find the ones that shine the brightest
and before that even lands, they're already rolling out the next generation:
> the plants grow 2-3x faster than the original
> the flowers come in pink and blue for the first time
> one of them even shifts between pink and white depending on the sun and temperature
i might replace all my lamps with these lol