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The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown, Ohio, for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another，employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants. 人与植物之间的联系一直是科学研究的主题。最近的研究发现了一些积极影响，例如，在俄亥俄州扬斯敦市进行的一项研究发现，该市绿化较好的地区犯罪率较低。另一项研究显示，当员工的工作场所装饰有室内植物时，工作效率会提高15%。 The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse，even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. ＂We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,＂explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT. 麻省理工学院的工程师们研究更进一步，他们改变了植物的实际成分，以便让它们实现多种多样，甚至不寻常的功能。其中包括在叶子上印上传感器，当它们缺水时可以显示的植物，还有一种可以检测地下水中有害化学物质的植物。麻省理工学院化学工程教授迈克尔·斯特拉诺解释道：“我们正在考虑如何设计出取代我们每天使用的物品功能的植物”。 One of his latest projects has been to make plants grow in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light, about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by, is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn tree into self-powered street lamps. 他最近的一个项目是在实验中使用普通蔬菜让植物生长。斯特拉诺的团队发现，他们可以创造出持续三个半小时的微弱光线。光大约是阅读所需的千分之一，这只是一个开始。斯特拉诺说，这项技术有一天可以用来照亮整个房间，甚至可以把树变成自供电的路灯。 in the future，the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off＂switch＂where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight. 研究小组希望在未来开发出一种技术，一次性喷洒在植物叶子上，却可以持续植物的一生。工程师们还试图开发一种开关，当暴露在日光下时，光会消失。 Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source — such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway — a lot of energy is lost during transmission. 照明用电约占美国总用电量的7%。因为照明通常远离电源—例如，从发电厂到偏远公路上路灯的距离——在传输过程中会损失大量能量. Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy. 发光植物可以缩短这种距离，从而有助于节约能源。
