After Neil Armstrong’s small step onto the moon, generations of children played with toy rockets and dreamed of exploring space. Omri Amirav-Drory hopes a tiny glowing plant will inspire future generations of kids to play with genomes and dream up new forms of life.
Drory is a scientist and businessman leading a project to genetically engineer plants to make light-producing firefly proteins. He envisions a day when trees will replace street lamps to illuminate cities. “I think it will be a more interesting, beautiful world with glowing plants in it,” he says.