This is pretty old news (in fact, two years old today) but it’s so awesome that I wanted to post it for anyone else who might’ve missed it.

A bunch of engineers at MIT made a solar cell out of spinach. For real. They looked to nature for inspiration, and realized that since plants are so good at using the Sun’s energy, maybe it could be harnessed in a more directly useful way for us. Two years ago when the article was written this technology was a long way from being commercial, and I suspect it still is, but keep your eyes peeled.

BEHOLD the Spinach Solar Cell! The article is from Science News, one of my favorite science magazines.