American University in Cairo students develop self-luminous concrete that can glow in the dark

2022-07-15T17:10:00-04:00

A quartet of undergraduate engineering students at the American University in Cairo has developed self-luminescent concrete they say is a possible offset to the material’s poor environmental performance.

Working under the stewardship of Professor Mohamed Nagib AbouZeid, the students were able to develop a sunlight-absorbing concrete that, similar to the natural process known as bioluminescence, releases its energy at night in the form of light rays to offset the high costs of roadway illumination in line with the country’s sustainability goals and ahead of its turn as host of the UN’s COP27 summit in November.

An AUC engineering student holds up a sample of her team's work. Image courtesy The American University in Cairo.

“The idea of our research came from wanting to make an integral construction material, just like concrete, but more sustainable and environmentally friendly in both its creation and function, especially in light of what the world has come to with energy shortages a...

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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American University in Cairo students develop self-luminous concrete that can glow in the dark

Biobulb turns E. Coli into sustainable light source