"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.

麻省理工学院化学工程教授迈克尔·斯特拉诺解释道：“我们正在思考如何设计植物来代替我们日常使用的东西的功能。”

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The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps. 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.

斯特拉诺表示，该技术将来可能用于房间照明，甚至可以将树木改造为自供电路灯。该团队希望未来可以开发此技术的新形式，用于喷洒植物叶片，一次操作，终生有效。

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Strano and his colleagues detail their discovery in the March 7 issue of the journal Nature Materials.

斯特拉诺和他的同事在3月7号的《自然材料》杂志上详细说明了他们的发现。

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Dr Strano, however, has exploited a new manufacturing process based on a polymer gel that has an affinity for semiconducting nanotubes, but not metallic ones.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

But Dr Strano and his colleagues are nonetheless jubilant.

ECONOMIST: Monitor