The French town where the lighting is alive

Authored by bbc.com and submitted by Sariel007

Most bioluminescent ocean species emit a blue-green light, which, due to the shorter wavelengths of the colours, can travel further in the ocean. Some fireflies and certain snails glow yellow, and the so-called "railroad worm", a beetle larvae native to the Americas, is known to turn both red and greenish-yellow in a dotted pattern that resembles a train at night. Springhares – nocturnal rodents found in southern Africa – have even been found to have hair that produces a vivid pink biofluorescent glow.

The turquoise blue glow bathing the waiting room in Rambouillet, meanwhile, comes from a marine bacterium gathered off the coast of France called Aliivibrio fischeri. The bacteria are stored inside saltwater-filled tubes, allowing them to circulate in a kind of luminous aquarium. Since the light is generated through internal biochemical processes that are part of the organism's normal metabolism, running it requires almost no energy other than that needed to produce the food the bacteria consume. A mix of basic nutrients is added and air is pumped through the water to provide oxygen. To "turn off the lights", the air is simply cut off, halting the process by sending the bacteria into an anaerobic state where it does not produce bioluminescence.

"Our goal is to change the way in which cities use light," says Sandra Rey, founder of the French start-up Glowee, which is behind the project in Rambouillet. "We want to create an ambiance that better respects citizens, the environment and biodiversity – and to impose this new philosophy of light as a real alternative."

Proponents like Rey argue bioluminescence produced by bacteria could be an energy-efficient, sustainable way to light up our lives. The way we currently produce light, she argues, has changed little since the first light bulb was developed in 1879. While the LED-bulb, which emerged in the 1960s, has significantly reduced the running costs of lighting, it still depends on electricity, which is largely produced by burning fossil fuels.

Granum22 on April 21st, 2022 at 14:44 UTC »

The headline is flat out wrong. While bioluminescence doesn't require electricity this system does. Glowee the company behind it claims the benefits compared to LEDs are:

1) a 40% reduction in electricity while in use

2) 98.9% reduction in CO2 production

3) 95% reduction in water use over it's lifetime

4) completely biodegradable waste

5) the process doesn't require limited resources to produce.

Ok-Use6303 on April 21st, 2022 at 14:24 UTC »

Eh... Not sure if it'd be totally independent of electricity. They mention air pumps in the article so what's going to drive those?

If it's an overall net reduction in electrical usage than I'm all for it, but may need to get some more data first.

LeviHolden on April 21st, 2022 at 13:29 UTC »

so we're giving the bacteria jobs now