Whenever night falls, rows of street lamps will be lit on time, illuminating the night for us with dim lights. But in the small town of Rambouillet in France, there is a special place where the street lamps emit a slightly "strange" blue light.
▲ Image courtesy of Glowee
From the color of the light, it can be seen that they are very different from the common street lamps, and the reason for this difference is hidden in the lamp. Ordinary street lights need electricity to drive, but the street lights developed by French startup Glowee use bioluminescence.
In fact, bioluminescence is not uncommon. Almost everyone has seen glowing creatures, such as flashing fireflies and jellyfish with fantastic colors. In the movie "The Fantasy Drift of the Young Pi", the beautiful scene of the sea like a starlight shining is because of the luminous creatures in the ocean.
Image courtesy of Your Local Guardian
On the planet Pandora in Avatar, there are also many impressive glowing plants.
▲ Image courtesy of WallpaperAccess
Whether on land or in the sea, there are many luminous creatures: fish, insects, algae, plants... Especially in the deep seabed, about 76% of deep-sea creatures emit light, in addition to fish, there are many microorganisms that emit light.
▲ Image courtesy of Glowee
The distinctive street lamps of the French company Glowee are realized with the help of microorganisms on the coast. Aliivibrio fischeri, a luminous bacterium from the sea, is stored in a brine tube, and because of its natural bioluminescent properties, these bacteria can be easily and infinitely cultured in the laboratory.
▲ Image courtesy of Glowee
Light is produced by this bacterium as an organism during normal metabolic processes, so running this street lamp requires little to no additional energy. Simply add a mixture of essential nutrients and pump air into the water to provide oxygen, and they will continue to emit a soft blue-green glow without using electricity at all.
If you want to "turn off the lights", it is actually not difficult. As long as the air is blocked and the bacteria are left in an anaerobic state, so that metabolism cannot be carried out, they will not emit light.
▲ Image courtesy of Glowee
Sandra Rey, founder of Glowee, said: "Our goal is to change the way cities use light, and we want to create an atmosphere that better respects citizens, the environment and biodiversity, and use this new philosophy of light as a real alternative."
Glowee's team is currently designing a series of bioluminescent urban furniture and is also negotiating with several cities in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal, hoping that the use of biological light will illuminate more places.
▲ Image courtesy of Glowee
Whether it is the resources consumed or the greenhouse gases that may be generated, bioluminescent street lamps are obviously more environmentally friendly than ordinary street lamps. However, this does not mean that it can become a substitute for street lights, in addition to the light emitted by the organism will not be as bright as the LED, because it is bioluminescence, the brightness will darken after a period of time, and they need to be "charged" with food.
In addition, this glowing marine bacteria is also very sensitive to changes in temperature, and if you want to make the street lamp work stably, there are still many areas that need to be improved.
▲ Image courtesy of Glowee
In today's industrial development, Glowee's bioluminescent street lights are not only to reduce emissions, this new thing is also a clever way to integrate nature with our lives, so that we can see nature and our environment in another way.