Julian Melchiorri a student at the Royal College of Arts has worked in tandem with Tufts University to create the first manmade leaf. This leaf is capable of turning light and water into oxygen. The main difference in this leaf verse normal plants seems to stem from the idea that this leaf requires less resources than a normal plant does.
The leaf itself is a silk base that has been fused with chloraplast. Thes can be extremely useful for any type of ventillaton system - it can help with ventilation in large buildings or bringing oxygen indoors I'm any type of situation and one website even went so far as to say "or when camping you can wipe your butt on an expensive leaf".
But the real excitement brought on by the leaf is the fact that it can help us with all aspects of space including but not limited to providing oxygen during long adventures into space. Space is the final frontier and if there is ever hope to colonize space one day advances like this leaf will be crucial. No one can expect to last long in space without means to breathe and given that normal plants can't survive in space without consuming valuable resources, these advances become more and more important and let more opportunities for mankind I'm space to develop.
While this idea is still more conceptual rather than practical the idea behind it and potential of this project.
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