A big, shallow rectangular pool of water sits underneath the tail of a defunct MiG-23 jet. A hand-lettered sign at its side reads: Light Emitting Algae: Giant Petri Dish.
At first, it's not at all clear what's happening. Visitors to the Chaos Communications Camp here stop and stare, taking pictures in its reflection. By night, the pool is surrounding flashing lights, disco balls and smoke machines, another sparkling exhibit in a campground full of odd and colorfully lit things.
But by the second day, things have begun growing on the water. By the third and fourth, they're glowing in progressively larger patches, iridescent blues and greens and silvers. Light-emitting indeed, and a kind of bio-hack in itself.
The project is LEA (Light Emitting Algae) 2, a real-world experiment in tinkering with lifeforms instead of code. Led by researchers from the University of Amsterdam, it's the second time the group has 
worked with this type of algae, said Max Jansan, a post doctoral student monitoring the pool.
The algae strains are found in nature, and the examples in the pool aren't genetically modified at all, he says. But the researchers are studying how to optimize the state in which they emit light, controlling temperature, PH balance, and other variables.
Of course, a pool in the open sun, filling steadily with detritus from the coffee stand across the driveway isn't exactly a controlled experiment. But the researchers sitting around their military-style tent, drinking beers in the sun, seem perfectly happy with the uncertainty.
(Photos: Above: The pond; Below: The algae, day four)
