Sandra Rey has seen the light – and it comes from the sea. Read more: How Lumiere London uses light to create spectacular sculptures
"Many marine organisms have the ability to create light without electricity," she says. "Jellyfish, squid...even algae." To get that natural resource out of the ocean, Rey's Paris-based startup Glowee makes lights filled with genetically modified bio-luminescent bacteria.
Now, the 26-year-old wants their soft green glow to illuminate city streets. "Nature is a perfectly clean factory," she says. "We could change the way we consume and lower light pollution."
Each bioluminescent bulb is a transparent shell containing a combination of nutrients and oxygen: this supports E.coli bacteria, which Glowee's 15-person team alters genetically, inserting bioluminescent genes found in a Hawaiian bobtail squid. "We make the light more intense by coding their DNA," explains Rey, who developed the idea for a student contest in 2013, as part of her masters in industrial design at the Strate École de Design in Sèvres. (She won.) Glowee, founded the following year, has developed three versions of its product: a liquid; a gel; and a version that contains proteins.
The lights can take any shape, from window stickers to more conventional lamps. The biggest challenge is the exponential growth of bacteria, which consume the nutrients in the current shells within three days. Rey says she has a prototype of a month-long light, but in the meantime she's designed a business solution: "Our light will be a service," Rey explains. "We provide the raw material, and when it doesn't work anymore, we will provide new ones." Costs will vary with size, but are not set.
So far Glowee – which has raised €1.7 million (£1.4m) from backers including the state-owned utility which operates France's electricity network – has created installations for luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH and management consultants BCG. Rey plans to create lights for French retailers, which since 2013 have been banned from lighting windows between 1am and 7am. "We're hoping to make Christmas illuminations by December," says Rey, who looks forward to getting her lights into the countryside. "We may be able to see the stars again."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
