Nanoparticles make leaves glow

Can street lights be replaced by trees? Taiwanese scientists believe that they can using gold nanoparticles to induce luminescence in leaves. 

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are used in street and bicycle lights as they have a higher efficiency than traditional light bulbs but even more environmentally-friendly LED's are desirable. Now Yen Hsun Su and coworkers at Academia Sinica and the National Cheng Kung University in Taipei and Tainan have tackled this problem by synthesising gold nanoparticles shaped like sea urchins and diffusing them into plant leaves to create bio-LEDs.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemTech/Volume/2010/11/leaves_glow.asp