Scientists Antony Evans, Omri Amirav-Drory and Kyle Taylor say that they are close to making plants that glow a reality through synthetic biology. The team has garnered significant attention on the prospect that it can deliver on its promise.

Plants that glow, able to illuminate our nights, present one of the best potentials of green technology. After all, the light that we would receive from them would be purely a product of a healthy, natural process. But is this possibility merely science fiction?

A team of three scientists in San Francisco is trying to make glowing plants a reality through synthetic biology. By taking some genes from luminescent marine bacteria and engineering the bacteria's DNA so that it's compatible with a plant's, the team believes it is possible to eventually make plants and trees of all sizes glow without using electricity.

"Imagine the next time that you walk in the park, you don't have to take a flashlight with you because the trees are illuminated," said Antony Evans, the team's project manager. "We believe that in a few years, it's going to be here."

Evans and his two colleagues, synthetic biologist Omri Amirav-Drory and scientist Kyle Taylor, haven't succeeded in producing plants that glow yet but they say they are close. The team has managed to modify genes from glowing marine bacteria to make them compatible to common plants. By inserting this DNA information into a plant, it can theoretically result in a self-illuminating plant.

But ultimately for the three, this project is about much more than that.

"Basically, this technology will have broad real applications," said Evans. "Plants and biology in general are very efficient at dealing with energy. Plants turn sunlight into energy that we eat every day. And so we could use those applications to improve the very nature of the world."