[Tom Lombardo] is an engineer and an educator. When a company sent him a Dino Pet–a bioluminescent sculpture–he found it wasn’t really usable as a practical light source. He did, however, realize it would be an interesting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) project for students to produce bioluminescent sculptures.
The lamps (or sculptures, if you prefer) contain dinoflagellates which is a type of plankton that glows when agitated. Of course, they don’t put out a strong light and–the main problem–you have to agitate the little suckers to get them to emit light. [Tom] found that there was a mild afterglow when you stop shaking, but not much. You can get an idea of how much light they make in the video below. The idea for a school project would be to make practical ambient lighting that didn’t require much input power to agitate the plankton.
Of course, this is a lamp that is alive. So there’s a certain break in period along with particular care instructions (you need new sea water introduced every so often). You can agitate them too much and kill the plankton. You have to maintain the temperature within certain limits and if you want it to last more than a few months, you need to feed your lamp.
If you search for dinoflagellates, you’ll find there’s plenty of resources on where to find a starter colony and how to grow and use them. There’s even the required instructable. We’ve seen at least one bio lighting project that was an entry for the Hackaday prize.
STEAM?
…What is this STEAM you speak of?
(hehehehe…)
They should really get the various carnivorous councils to chip in some cash, and just rebrand it: MEATS.
The slogan could be: It’s how you get dinner.
Science
Technology
Engineering
Arts
Math
As if you didn’t know already…
bioluminescent bacteria tend to have longer light shedding timespans than dinoflagellates, but it’s mushrooms that really show the most potential for lighting systems, dissappointingly enough. it’s too bad they only glow fora short period.
Yeah, if we could just get the cubensis to glow before you ate it…
I see the woman gleefully shaking the lamp, and silently scream, “No! NO! You’re KILLING them!!!”
Yup. Same here. AND she’s having fun…
Alright, where the Plankton Ethical Treatment Alliance when you need them?
Look like a cool way to visualize flow structures!
Couldn’t you just add a Magnetic Stirrer to make it glow without manually agitating them?
I’ve always wondered if sea monkeys can coexist with these?