Biobulb turns E. Coli into sustainable light source

2013-08-30T14:29:00-04:00

The ecosystem will consist of several different microbes, each of which plays a role in nutrient recycling and population control. The result is a closed ecosystem that will sustain itself with the addition of just light [...] The result will be a stable, closed, microbial ecosystem that glows in the dark.

Undergraduate researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, are developing a sustainable bacterial ecosystem that will be able to produce light. The "Biobulb" will use a lab-neutered version of the E. Coli bacteria (totally harmless) that has been encoded with the gene for bioluminescence, the same phenomenon that accounts for a firefly's glow. A cocktail of other bacteria will support the E. Coli in a closed ecosystem that needs only light to stay alive -- and the entire thing can fit in a jar.

The three undergraduates working on Biobulb (AnaElise Beckman, Alexandra Cohn, and Michael Zaiken, part of the Frontier Fellows program) are seeking funding for the project through RocketHub, an online crowd-sourcing platform tailored more toward scientific and philanthropic ventures than consumer/creative goods. For a donation of $1,000 or more, the team will encrypt a personalized message of up to 40 characters onto the E. Coli DNA.

Just how bright the Biobulb will be is unc...

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Biobulb turns E. Coli into sustainable light source