Bioluminescent street lamps

We created a 3D model to try to visualise a city lit by bioluminescent trees

In order to provide any solution to the problem, a biological solution must tap into a currently unused energy resource. For this reason we decided to consider the use of bioluminescent trees to replace conventional street lamps.

A tree in this position would be able to photosynthesise during the day, building up reserves of energy. We then imagined it emitting light by night, using the bacterial luciferase system, under the control of the inherent circadian clock based gene regulation systems.

Putting it into practice

Ben proving it is possible to read by bioluminescent light

We wanted to provide some proof of concept of these ideas. We built the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUFscEVK5Ks bacterial bubble lamp] to investigate this, and also read the Jungle Book using a flask containing E. coli expressing our bacterial luciferase.

Modelling