VELLORE: It is believed that nature has solutions for all problems, including the power crisis that is currently rocking the state. A plus one student here has proposed to partly solve the power crisis with a solution of tapping the bioluminescence that is available in plenty among the insects and plants for illumination purpose during night hours. His project on this topic has won the state level ‘INSPIREA’ (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) award by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, recently and he has been selected to represent the state at the national level contest.17-year old Kiran Chandar of Shrishti Matriculation Higher Secondary School has come up with the innovative idea of making use of the bioengineering concept to tap bioluminescence, a naturally available glowing chemical, emitted by certain insects such as fireflies, anglerfish etc and transplant their genes using the recombinant DNA technology into the bioengineered transgenic plants that can glow during the night hours. These trees can be planted on the roadways and highways so that they would emit natural light. ‘What I have proposed is a concept and a lot of thinking needs to be put into it to give it a shape’ Kiran said. As a student of science, he believes that the bioluminescence trait could be extracted from the insects or plants and using a vector, it could be transferred to a plant that would inherit the glowing property. He has proposed to use the plasmid of the naturally available microbe e.coli as the vector that can multiply fast.While the idea is still in the evolution stage, Kiran feels that it would be a promising field of research for the government to take up seriously. Kiran says that his concept of bioluminescence has applications in many fields as well, for example as bio-identifiers in detecting infectious microbes in human bodies and corpses, contamination of food items, novelty pet animals with glowing skin, self glowing clothing etc. Some of these ideas are already under testing phase in the USA and Germany, he added.Right now, he is in the process of fine-tuning his project for presentation at the national level contest in May. “My parents, both science teachers, and sister who is a final year medico and the teacher-guide at the school are the big source of inspiration for me to work on the project” he said adding that while initially he wanted to pursue civil services, he wants to take up bioengineering as his career now, inspired by the award.
Comments
0 comment