We had a number of workshops considering the potential broader societal implications of our work. Given the energy crisis facing our planet, lighting, which accounts for 8% of our use of electricity, seemed an interesting application of our work.

Bioluminescent street lamps

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.