card_zero6 hours ago
> 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?
shellfishgene4 hours ago
I think they mean the algae is in sunlight during the day and growing, producing light only at night.
aaron69512 minutes ago
[dead]
card_zero3 hours ago
Could be. So over the mentioned four weeks, the algae is reproducing more cells in sunlight, and emitting light at night, while gradually wearing out in some way and "retaining 75% of their brightness". Then at the end of the month you have a bucket of tired algae, and that's the stored carbon. I don't know what you do with it. You probably shouldn't chuck it in a river. Its likely fate is methane, wherever you put it.
californical3 hours ago
That sounds kinda like carbon capture, but decentralized to these light nodes
card_zeroan hour ago
It seems to me that it has the same problem as carbon capture, which is how to make the result inert, or which deep hole to pump it into. Two people apparently silently disagreed with this, I wonder what was bothering them?
gostsamo27 minutes ago
if the output is consistent, could be used for producing biofuel or plastic.
technotony5 hours ago
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!
arthurcolle5 hours ago
did you keep a few of your gmo cultures?
Scroll_Swean hour ago
Modern LED lights really draw no power at all in the grand scheme of things
ceejayoz8 hours ago
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.
aetherspawn7 hours ago
Wow.. this is maybe the plant for anyone interested: https://light.bio/
contingencies6 hours ago
Mushrooms too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_nidiformis
[deleted]5 hours agocollapsed
walrus017 hours ago
It rather resembles the CGI protomolecule from 'The Expanse'.
cassianoleal8 hours ago
So can torches and candles.
dullcrisp8 hours ago
The sun?
sandworm1017 hours ago
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.
kiba7 hours ago
I think it's fine for research, curiosity, aesthetic and coolness factor. Not everything need to be 'practical'.
m3kw97 hours ago
good for car dashboards, maybe for not vital areas
Razengan6 hours ago
I don’t want algae on my vital areas
Razengan6 hours ago
Technically [nerd emoji] nothing is possible without electricity
(No I don’t go to any parties)
