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All golfers know the disappointment of packing up their clubs when dusk arrives, because they can’t reliably see their target in the dwindling light. But a low-cost, environmentally friendly way to light up the fairway after sun goes down may be just a pitch shot away. And, believe it or not, a trio of 16-year-old high-school students from Mississauga, Ont., is making the play for the green.
Their concept is fairly simple. Transplant the gene responsible for making fireflies glow into the genes of ordinary grass. Fertilize the grass with a special enzyme called luciferase, which produces light in the presence of oxygen. Finally, sit back and watch it grow, er, glow. “Just imagine a huge blob of fireflies,” says Serena Liu, one of the three Grade 11 students who entered the project in the Sanofi-Aventis Biotech Challenge held in Toronto in May. “The grass would be bright enough for you to see in the dark.”
The budding scientists have already created a customized piece of DNA—nicknamed pSPA-4 after their three initials—which they plan to introduce into a grass cell by way of a virus. The cell would then produce seeds, spreading its glow-in-the-dark properties. The only real stumbling block is the high cost of the luciferin enzyme. The trio estimate it would cost “thousands of dollars” to fertilize an entire football field. Developing a cheaper, synthetic version of luciferin would solve that issue.
The applications for glow-in-the-dark grass extend well beyond the golf course. For example, it could be used to cut down on municipal electricity bills by replacing energy-hogging street lights with grass-lined sidewalks. “We’re just trying to bring nature back to the world as best we can,” says Pinky Wong, another one of the students. The entrepreneur of the group, Alvin Poon, is already thinking of ways to cash in on their invention. “It would add a whole new series of products to the gardening industry,” he says. “We could sell our product in a garden catalogue.”
The grass is also completely non-toxic. “Don’t worry,” says Liu. “If your dog eats the grass, he won’t start to glow.”
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