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Comment by cannonpr | Hacker News Reader

This seems like a horrible idea considering how much plants exchange genes even cross species very easily ? Never mind what effect it might have to night pollinators and other ecosystem effects. I look forward to fast forwarding a few decades where the entire ecosystem is either collapsing or glowing because of N bio engineered species we didn’t properly understand before releasing.

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Not that we shouldn't be careful with any new technology, but do keep in mind that humans have been "genetically modifying organisms" for tens of thousands of years - that's how we ended up with many of the plants you see around, all of the food we eat, pets like dogs, etc.

The engineering is becoming more exotic, that's for sure, but it's not new by any stretch

>keep in mind that humans have been "genetically modifying organisms" for tens of thousands of years

That's called selective breeding and it's not even in the same ballpark as modern genetic modification of organisms.

Framing modern genetic modification as a mere exotic form of selective breeding is a dishonest frame that downplays the powers of modern biotech as well as the potential danger it poses.

"Modern genetic modification", as you put it, has been happening with crops and food manufacture for DECADES.

IMO, it is dishonest of YOU to suggest that this form of modern genetic modification is somehow new and scary and untested.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food

While I suspect that’s possible in theory, I think it’s far more likely that ecosystem collapse comes from something like pesticides or habitat loss than gmo.

I think we're safe. If it was advantageous for plants to glow this would probably have already evolved. It already evolved in animals and fungus, microbes etc.

When Taxa was building this a decade ago, the luminescence genes got immediately outcompeted because they’re hopelessly energy intensive.

Figuring out why glowing gives a species such an advantage that it outcompetes non-glowing competitors would be an interesting post hoc study.

Just my opinion but I imagine this burns energy for no benefit. I think the plant released into the wild might survive for a little but eventually that glowing gene would be switched off.

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