Scientist [Julian Melchiorri][1] created the world’s first man-made, fully working and breathing, leaves. It might be a major key in making Mars an easier and friendlier place to live, since these leaves will make oxygen easier to come by. Not only does it work like a regular leaf, but research shows it’s possible for it to be 49% more efficient. All it needs is a little sunlight and water to work. The leaf uses a special silk material that makes it possible for chloroplasts to live and do their thing, and chloroplasts are where the magic of turning CO2 into oxygen happens. Chloroplasts become the engine of the leaves that only need CO2 and sunlight as ‘fuel’ to run, and emits oxygen as its ‘waste.’ The engine’s process is called photosynthesis, and the chloroplasts of a leaf is where photosynthesis happens. The fact that these silky things can actually carry out the process of photosynthesis with such little effort is what makes them so incredible and useful. [1]: http://www.julianmelchiorri.com/
->**Listen to Julian Melchiorri explain the Silk Leaf and his vision for the future:**<-