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Microbes provide futuristic lighting |
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4 Dec 2011, 10:25 PM
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This unusual looking contraption could be the mood lighting of the future - and it's entirely natural and uses no electricity. The bio-light uses different biological technologies to create ambient light effects. The concept explores the use of bioluminescent bacteria, which are fed with methane and composted material.
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The light is part of Dutch company Philips latest design project ‘Microbial Home’, which represents an innovative and sustainable approach to energy, waste, lighting, food preservation, cleaning, grooming, and human waste management. The Microbial Home project is a proposal for an integrated cyclical ecosystem where each function’s output is another’s input. In the project the home has been viewed as a biological machine to filter, process and recylcle what we conventionally think of as waste – sewage, effluent, garbage, waste water.
The bio-light comprises a wall of glass cells containing a live bacterial culture that emits soft green light by bioluminescence. It has been created using a technique where individual cells are hand-blown into a steel frame which is freestanding or hung on the wall.
Each cell is connected via silicon tubes to the food source, (which is drawn from a reservoir at the base) creating a closed loop system for the living material. The food source could potentially be drawn out of the sludge from the methane digester that forms the centerpiece of the kitchen in the Microbial Home.
The microbial community is able to provide the soft mood lighting typical of luminescence by using energy stored in waste streams. Luminescence is the phenomenon where light is produced at low temperatures, as opposed to incandescence, where light is generated as a result of high heat. Bioluminescent organisms produce an enzyme, luciferase, which interacts with a particular type of light-emitting molecule called a luciferin.
Bioluminescence produces low-intensity light, more suitable for tracing, warning, ambience and indication than functional illumination. Its speed of generation, being dependent on chemical reaction, is slower than most conventional light sources and the life form itself must be kept alive. But it needs no wires and is independent of the electricity grid. The living nature of the material provides interesting possibilities for changing, unpredictable, environmentally responsible ambient effects.
The technique will probably be best suited to applications such as illuminated walkways where organisms could be growing and delivering light for free, perhaps using glowing plants to illuminate road verges or as warning strips on flights of stairs.
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