We’ve been fighting against the literal darkness since humans crawled out of the primordial goo of evolution. Now we’re hoping to bring another weapon to the battle, glowing plants. Researchers at MIT have created plants that glow in the dark, bright enough to almost read by.

This feat was done with the help of some enzymes, mostly luciferase. The components were injected into the watercress and it gave off a dim yellowish light for almost four hours which is really impressive because the previous record for glowing watercress was zero hours.

The light isn’t technically bright enough to read by but it was bright enough to at least see the words on the page. Researchers are working on getting stronger longer lasting light. If it works out, we could see glowing plants lining our roadways and streets instead of streetlights which would save us on electricity and look pretty magical. Check out the video below to see everything in action.

https://youtu.be/hp-vqd8zJM4