Hacking isn’t just for computers and smart phones. According to a study published last week in the journal Science, scientists have found a way to hack a plant’s genes to make it use sunlight more quickly.

Photosynthesis(光合作用) is the word used to describe how plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make their own food, and it’s a very slow process. Plants use less than 1% of the energy available to them. But by hacking a plant’s genes, the scientists were able to increase leaf growth on plants between 14 and 20 percent in experiments.

Specifically, scientists hacked the plant’s protective system. “Normally, this system starts working when a plant gets too much sunlight,” said scientist Krishna Niyogi, co-author of the study. When the plant senses the light, it removes extra energy and creates more leaves. When the plant is in shade, the protective system is turned off. But the process is slow. And Stephen Long, the lead author of the study, compared a plant’s protective system to light-adjusting glasses. When a person wears the glasses outside during the day, the lenses darken and lighten depending on how sunny it is. “Plants do the same thing,” he said. But in plants the adjustment can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. This makes it hard for plants to get the right amount of sunlight needed to create food.

The new study sped up the process. By changing the plant’s genes, the protective system turned on and off more quickly than normal. As a result, leaf growth on the plants scientists used in the study increased. Leaf growth in two plants increased by 20%, while leaf growth on a third plant increased by 14%. Scientists conducted the study on tobacco plants. But they think the genetic changes would produce the same results in staples(主食) such as corn and rice.

“Now that we know it works, it won’t be too difficult to do it with other crops,” said Long. “If you look at crops around the world,” he said, “it would increase many million tons of food.”