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Light without electricity? Glowing algae could make it possible

78 pointsby geoxlast Wednesday at 7:21 PM24 commentsview on HN

Comments

card_zerotoday at 3:48 AM

> Because these algae are photosynthetic ... "We’re storing carbon while we’re producing light"

The circle of light! Perpetual illumination! Let the algae do photosynthesis using their own light output as energy!

What's happening, chemically? Let's see ... it's luciferin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Luciferin_Light_Emission_... Isn't that CO2 being emitted on the right, there?

technotonytoday at 4:01 AM

I hope this works. A decade ago I submitted glowing microbes to the epa but they blocked it. My read from going through that was that it was politically impossible. Hopefully times have changed.

Edit: my microbes were gmo, these are not, so no epa rules. Good luck to them!

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ceejayoztoday at 1:26 AM

This feels like weird framing. They still need energy to produce it.

I have a genetically engineered luminescent petunia plant. It’s neat, but a ways off from being useful for anything.

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Scroll_Swetoday at 8:03 AM

Modern LED lights really draw no power at all in the grand scheme of things

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walrus01today at 2:22 AM

It rather resembles the CGI protomolecule from 'The Expanse'.

cassianolealtoday at 1:26 AM

So can torches and candles.

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sandworm101today at 2:26 AM

Why all the bother with 3d-printed gel shapes? Why not just use a mat of these things, all glowing, and then put it behind an LCD panel. Then you can have moving pictures without all the bother of 3d printing.

Then you can take the next step and both their apparent output further by replacing the algae with tiny blue LED modules.

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m3kw9today at 2:09 AM

good for car dashboards, maybe for not vital areas

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Razengantoday at 3:35 AM

Technically [nerd emoji] nothing is possible without electricity

(No I don’t go to any parties)