Silk leaf-Man made breathing leaf

Man-made 'breathing' leaf is an oxygen factory for space travel

Royal College, Produce Oxygen, Oxygen Factory, Space Travel

Man-made 'breathing' leaf is an oxygen factory for space travel An artificial leaf converts water and light to oxygen, and that's good news ... What!?!

Silk Leaf by Julian Melchiorri - produces oxygen much like a plant does, could be a possibility for future space travel!

Man-made 'breathing' leaf is an oxygen factory for space travel An artificial leaf converts water and light to oxygen.

Inventor Develops Synthetic "Leaf" That Produces Oxygen. Julian Melchiorri, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, claims to have developed a silk leaf that could create oxygen for space travel as well as make the air nicer here on Earth. The leaf was developed in conjunction with a silk lab from Tufts University

RCA graduate Julian Melchiorri says the synthetic biological leaf he developed, which absorbs water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen just like a plant, could enable long-distance space travel. He did this by suspending chloroplasts in a mixture made out of silk protein. | Image: Silk Leaf by Julian Melchiorri

Man-made 'breathing' leaf is an oxygen factory for space travel An artificial leaf converts water and light to oxygen, and that's good news ...suddenly I imagine the forest on the spaceship in Doctor Who.

The Silk Leaf, created by Julian Melchiorri, was made using silk proteins and chloroplasts. It produces oxygen the same way a real plant would. He hopes to use Silk Leaf to create fresher air within ventilation systems and even thinks it could help produce oxygen for long-distance space journeys.

Royal College of Art graduate Julian Melchiorri has created the first man-made, biologically functional leaf that takes in carbon dioxide, water, and light and releases oxygen. The leaf consists of chloroplasts -- the part of a plant cell where photosynthesis happens -- suspended in body made of silk protein.

Silk Leaf is a lightweight, low-power oxygen factory for space travel. It was designed by Royal College of Art Julian Melchiorri, who found a way to embed chloroplasts, the structures in plant cells responsible for photosynthesis, into a silk protein. The leaf absorbs water and carbon dioxide from the air to produce oxygen and could do the work of generating breathable air for long journeys through the cosmos.