Hacker News Comments on "Man Creates The First Ever Leaf That Turns Light and Water Into Oxygen" dana evans Youtube Video

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Hacker News Comments on
Man Creates The First Ever Leaf That Turns Light and Water Into Oxygen

dana evans · Youtube · 49 HN points · 0 HN comments

HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention dana evans's video "Man Creates The First Ever Leaf That Turns Light and Water Into Oxygen".

Youtube Summary

If humanity hopes to realize its dreams of exploring the stars, we're going to need to find ways to recreate life on Earth aboard a spaceship. Simply stockpiling enough vital supplies isn't going to cut it, which is what led Julian Melchiorri, a student at the Royal College of Art, to create an artificial biological leaf that produces oxygen just like the ones on our home planet do.

The problem with using natural foliage on our interstellar explorations is that plants may not flourish in zero gravity as much as we'd need them to. But since they're a better way to produce oxygen than simply trying to carry countless tanks full of O2, Melchiorri wanted to engineer a better alternative that would easy survive the rigors of space travel.
What he ended up creating still functions exactly like the leaves on a plant do, but in improved packaging, in a manner of speaking. The artificial leaves feature chloroplasts extracted from actual plant cells that are suspended in a material made from silk protein. So when given access to light and water they still produce oxygen, but they're better suited to surviving off our planet.

But that's not to say the leaves won't be just as useful here on Earth. They can be employed as natural air filters in the ventilation systems of large buildings, producing extra oxygen that can be pumped indoors. Or if you're camping, they could be the most advanced emergency toilet paper you'll ever use.

Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/the-first-man-made-biological-leaf-turns-light-and-wate-1612646588

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An Artificial Biological Leaf [video]

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Dec 23, 2014 · 49 points, 9 comments · submitted by prateekj

⬐ buraksarica
Did someone in the video squeeze leafs in order to extract chlorophyll or something? It sounds crazy to destroy leaves in order to build artificial leaves..

⬐ ape4
Next artificial meat. Simply grind some beef and mold into a patty.

⬐ tmslnz
There were a few projects on this, from the same school. For one, James King's artificial meat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmqHnBp8odg

⬐ icandownvote
Sounds like a very cool project. Any idea where we can find more info on it? Specifically, it would be interesting to learn where does the freed Carbon go: this topic is not covered in images and the little text that is available on the site. Also (or perhaps related to it) what's the longevity of the leaf and what does it require for photosynthesis to run (regular leafs require at least water and removal or generated organic material)

⬐ dang
Url changed from http://www.sciencedump.com/content/first-man-made-biological..., which points to this.

⬐ hxrts
I believe this project is intended to be more of a 'design fiction' than a functioning photosynthetic material (RCA is well known for this type of work). Of course free organelles that aren't maintained by the cellular machinery will rapidly cease to function. They will maintain their green color but won't be able to perform membrane/macromolecule repair, gradient regulation, signaling, foreign body defense, etc.
This is still a useful project however as it may serve to catalyze future research into robust photosynthetic materials.

⬐ whistlerbrk
Do you know anyone working on this 'for real'? Synthetic biologists so to speak. I've looked into this before to no avail.

⬐ hxrts
Not familiar with the lab personally but this is probably close to the state of the art right now. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl903141j

⬐ r109
Yeah... this isn't new at all... it's a concept design, it doesn't actually function. Last time I saw this it was blown out of proportion in /r/futurology and people had to damage control to explain to people it wasn't actually science...

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Man Creates The First Ever Leaf That Turns Light and Water Into Oxygen