💬 QUOTED: “With some fine-tuning, these artificial plants could be a part of every household. The benefits of this idea are easy to see.”

In the future, your succulents could double as an iPhone charger. Binghamton University researchers recently invented an artificial plant that uses photosynthesis to clean the surrounding air – and also generates a small amount of electricity in the process, which the researchers say could be used for charging devices.

How it works: Each artificial leaf mimics the natural processes of plants during photosynthesis, taking in CO2, water, and nutrients while expelling oxygen – but the leaves also generate a small amount of power while doing so.

• In testing, a proof-of-concept plant with five artificial leaves was able to generate both oxygen and electricity, while removing CO2 at a far more efficient rate than natural plants.
• The researchers say their artificial plants could help bring down indoor CO2 levels, which are often significantly higher than the outdoors and can pose a health concern.

👀 Looking ahead… Currently, the artificial plants can only generate a small amount of power (0.00014 watts from five leaves). The researchers say their next goal is to improve the technology so their plants can charge cell phones and other devices.

🪙 STAT OF THE DAY: Costco members love gold as much as the niffler in Fantastic Beasts (and that’s saying something). A Bloomberg survey covering 101 Costco locations across 46 states found ~77% were sold out of bullion bars in the first week of October, with all the stores surveyed having received fresh stock of the gold products in recent weeks.

🤔 DID YOU KNOW? There are an estimated 5,000–7,000 privately owned tigers in the US – a figure higher than the ~4,500 tigers currently living in the wild.

📰 WORTH A READ: Can You Copyright a Rhythm? → (Pitchfork)