It always seems like mankind is getting closer to inhabiting outer space, but mainly one thing has been holding us back: the problem that is oxygen. Plants can't grow in zero gravity without carbon dioxide and anyway, keeping an indefinite oxygen supply isn't feasible. Enter the 'Silk Leaf": a man made "plant" that can actually manufacture endless oxygen using light and water.
Julian Melchiorri wanted a way to produce oxygen in the harsh environment of interstellar travel, so he did it. What he created is an artificial leaf that has chloroplasts from plants actually suspended inside. Melchiorri used a silk fiber to hold the chloroplasts in place so that it can still act like a plant but with a kind of super-structure to make it extra resistant to the conditions of space.
He extracted chloroplasts from plant cells and placed them inside a silk protein. The outcome was the first photosynthetic material that lives and breathes as a plant does. He also wanted to build off of nature's own system to take advantage of proven methods. Also, the leaves won't just be useful for investigating the Galaxy. Here on earth, they can be used as biological air filters or oxygen producers.
