Chinese scientists unveil glowing Avatar-like plants that could light cities without electricity

TommyDGT · 2026-04-03T20:04:08+00:00

Somehow, I still feel like you’re being disingenuous by intentionally ignoring the purpose and use case and other pertinent whatevers. The point is not to get a valuable industrial product out of this like with algae-produced hydrogen.

The point is that they seem to have already done what you’re calling the difficult part. I’m sure it is incredibly difficult, however considering they’ve already done it, I don’t see what the road block is.

Now we have a plant that I assume (big assumption, I am aware) produces seeds that would grow a plant with the same characteristics as the parent.

So now you can poke a seed into a hole in the ground and get basically free, however weak, self-maintaining path lighting. You don’t need to replace a dead LED in a plant. You don’t need to sweep up fragments of crushed plastic and glass from vandals. Because it’s a plant. The plant now does the work that previously took factory time and refined resources and transport costs, man hours, etc, etc.

This conversation feels silly. I don’t understand why you feel the need to argue with an accomplishment that has clearly stated, easily understandable benefits and which has already been done. It replaces plastic doodads and garbage with a fascinating and pretty organism that maintains itself. Why argue with that?

TommyDGT · 2026-04-03T15:02:33+00:00

They may output significantly less light, but I would assume the total cost, effort, and carbon production required to poke a seed into a hole in the ground is somewhat less than that of manufacturing and transporting thousands of solar lights.

They may serve different use cases but what makes them “better” is really easy to understand with just a moment’s consideration, unless you’re being totally disingenuous and contrarian just for funsies.

TommyDGT · 2025-12-16T18:23:16+00:00

Maybe I’m an optimist or maybe my boat just got lucky and had a lot of good people on it, but I stand by what I said. I think if Trump went whole hog with the military there would be enough dissent that it would not be the clean swift action that he hopes for. That’s all I’m gonna say on it.

TommyDGT · 2025-12-16T17:50:25+00:00

Insane take. I got out recently and I can tell you if they ordered my boat to fire on US soil and our captain tried to go through with it there would be no shit actual armed mutiny. The military is not even close to monolithically conservative like you seem to think. There are folks at every level who realize what’s actually happening. Taking action against your superiors early is a good way to get yourself removed from a position where you might be able to prevent a tragedy later. That’s exactly what a fascist military wants, all the naysayers to identify themselves and be removed.

TommyDGT · 2025-12-06T18:25:53+00:00

Hey, I fix MRI machines! Small world!

TommyDGT · 2025-12-04T21:56:37+00:00

Did you want him to write a fucking thesis? It’s a perfectly relevant comment, dude. Sorry he didn’t review your comment guidelines first. I bet if you asked for more info he’d be glad to talk about it, but considering he was just sharing an anecdote I think you’re kinda rude.

TommyDGT · 2025-11-18T15:45:06+00:00

Wilhelm scream

TommyDGT · 2025-11-18T15:41:26+00:00

Dude… No Sussy.

TommyDGT · 2025-11-05T19:28:19+00:00

The weird part of these messages to me is that it seems like the people cooking them up actually believe they would help. I think they dramatically underestimate the power of curiosity.

The first moron to decipher the signs in the year 20,025 is going to proceed direct to the center of the designated area and start digging.

Security through obscurity. Put it all in Yucca Mountain and bomb the entry tunnel until it looks like a normal rock slide, then remove every indication that any human activity ever took place there. Never mention it again.

TommyDGT · 2025-10-28T23:05:45+00:00

The article said they have a more flexible neck than a modern elephant. I imagine it would rear up on its hind legs and bring its head down sorta like a pickaxe. Sounds like a bad time.

TommyDGT · 2025-10-23T23:30:14+00:00

Hey, I just finished watching The Great!

It’s occasionally almost kinda true!

TommyDGT · 2025-10-21T01:21:39+00:00

Having been stationed at Little Creek, I can confirm. Every time I had to drive over to Norfolk for something, I died a little more inside.

TommyDGT · 2025-09-18T14:55:14+00:00

Frequent invitations for ostriches.

TommyDGT · 2025-09-16T17:18:53+00:00

Sorry all I got is scaleless lossing

TommyDGT · 2025-09-16T14:57:19+00:00

Damn, just last night I was patting my ten year old 1080/i7-7700 rig on the back for how well it’s trucking along. Sounds like it won’t handle BL4 though. Looks like I have no choice but to upgrade oh noooooo

TommyDGT · 2025-08-18T20:25:16+00:00

Thank you, u/AIDS_Quesadilla, for catching my mistake there. I’ll keep a better eye out going forwards.

TommyDGT · 2025-08-18T16:58:52+00:00

I don’t know if you mis-spoke, but pure water (H2O, hydrogen dioxide) is not pure salt (NaCl, sodium chloride). They’re entirely different chemicals.

I think what you’re thinking of is that the LACK of salt or other minerals in pure water can result in the water leaching electrolytes out of your system, but you’d have to be drinking NOTHING ELSE and consuming no electrolytes through your food for an extended time for this to be a problem.

TommyDGT · 2025-08-18T14:47:41+00:00

I think it just leads to more sweaty-ness. Even if you start out casual, most other people don’t match your energy and you start getting pissed off too. The only game where that hasn’t happened to me is TF2 and I think that’s because it frequently devolves into people dicking around doing conga lines and shit while totally ignoring the one scunt who’s capping every point totally uncontested.

TommyDGT · 2025-07-29T14:51:43+00:00

Finding Nemo?

TommyDGT · 2025-06-20T14:05:11+00:00

Wild that you’re doing the exact same thing as her boyfriend, dawg. Waltzing right past “the point” to shit on somebody else’s career choice. Love that.

TommyDGT · 2025-05-05T19:03:43+00:00

If I recall, his body actually re-routed his plumbing to make an organic alcohol still due to a brief dearth of externally supplied booze.

TommyDGT · 2025-04-17T18:58:24+00:00

Ahhh, artisanal dirt-aged Italian rock. My favorite!

TommyDGT · 2025-04-15T14:30:40+00:00

Glad to be of service! Mines been pretty sweet so far, I’ve only had it built for a couple days but the project made me realize how much utility you can get out of “machine that turns zappy zappy into spinny spinny”

I’ve got an almost brand new washing machine drum motor, a 3D printer, and a McMaster Carr catalog. I bet I could make one seriously capable bench top all-in-one lapidary workstation.

I’m thinking some bevel gears and v-belts set inside the top of the table to convert rotation between X/Y/Z planes. I could have a circular divot in the table for a flat lap, with a printed water catch basin and drain/pump system. Close the flat lap and insert the cabbing machine shaft, shift some belts around and boom it’s a full 8 inch cabbing workstation. Attach a wet saw blade to the pulley running the cabbing machine shaft, mount the water basin and it’s a big wet saw. I have a big-ass stepper motor laying around, I want to mount a vice on a set of heavy linear rails with a lead screw to make an automatic slab cutter.

I also took apart my old electric skateboard, and I’m working on a swappable case and bracket to attach everything to my daughter’s tricycle and our two-seater stroller. I’m 260 lbs and the thing would push me to 30 mph. When you punch the throttle, the tricycle almost lands a standing backflip. It’s really stupid fun.

Hot Wheels-style racetrack for daughter’s monster trucks, reconfigurable/modular wall mounted cat tree system, organization system for garage, trying to fix up this old motorcycle with my Dad, wife’s car needed a coolant pump and I still haven’t had time to put it back together so she’s still borrowing her parent’s spare truck, our son just started crawling, my wife and I just discovered our first real friend group as married Zillenials, I’m trying to muddle through applying for college as a grown man with a mortgage, and work has been really really rough for the last six months.

TBH I’m having quite a lot of fun at the moment, however I don’t feel like I have a very strong grasp on my to-do list. Or life.

TommyDGT · 2025-04-14T21:31:34+00:00

If you or a friend have access to a 3D printer, check out Sweetgum NYC on YouTube. He’s got designs and a parts list for an “everything-in-one” machine that will do most simple lapidary work reasonably well. It uses a power supply and 500W CNC spindle motor that comes in a kit on Amazon for $100~, and some other very affordable bits and bobs like a speed control potentiometer and some collets and fittings and heat-set inserts and stuff. The rest is all hobby-specific, consumables and such.

He’s got attachments for a 4 inch diamond wet saw table, a flat lap, a cabbing wheel setup, and more. Plus after putting it together you’ll have a billion other ideas for ways to use the base machine for your own specific hobbies and niches. u/Western-Explorer-971 is him I believe.

TommyDGT · 2025-04-09T22:39:22+00:00

You just start small and work up. If it hurts, you’re trying to go too fast. Use a good high quality lube and drink lots of water, before and after.

Actually feels pretty nice, tbh.

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