San Diego Researchers Create Living LED Screen

Researchers working out of UC San Diego have succeeded in creating what looks very much like a cross between an LED screen and a neon light, using bacteria as the light emitting source. They have published a report of their findings on the University’s site.

One of the big problems with modern electronics is the electricity requirement. Virtually everything we used that performs some action or task for us relies on the creation, use and oftentimes storage of electricity to power our stuff. From washing machines, to computers, Smartphones and cars, we rely on electricity to make out things go. But, say some researchers, such as those at UC San Diego, there may be other ways to go that might allow us to get ourselves off the juice so to speak, and onto more natural ways to run our electronic devices. In this instance, they are talking about how they have arranged a group of e. coli bacteria that has had its DNA altered to make it glow, to produce images on command, on a flat screen, similar to what are commonly used in computers and television sets.

The Los Angeles Times, reports that the effect is eerily reminiscent of early television sets; glowing devices that were just barely able to display discernable images. But of course, as the paper also reports, this sort of technology is still in its infancy.

Imagine if in the future, rather than relying on tiny batteries to keep your cell phone charged, instead it had living organisms inside of it that fed on sunlight, food and water. In some respects, your phone might then morph into a sort of cyborg pet, ready to do your bidding, if you will only feed it. Such visions are not nearly so farfetched as some might imagine. The living screen in the UCSD lab is testament to that. Right now the screen is about the size of a paper clip, and all it can do is blink in preprogrammed ways, but clearly, it portends things to come. All that is needed are new ways of thinking.

In this example, the whole key to getting microorganisms such as e. coli to blink on command is to provide them with the right bit of nudging. In this case, that nudging comes in the form of a tiny jolt of electricity, just as do LED’s. The next problem of course, was in figuring out how to control a whole panel of such bacteria so that they shine brighter or dimmer, and of course in unison with the other bacteria on the plane. Both these problems were resolved by using a special type of organic gas that can be easily controlled by a computer chip. Exposing the bacteria to the gas at the same time causes them to all light up at once, similar, removing the gas causes them to go dark. From there, it’s not hard to see how a computer controlling the gas flow could control the individual bacteria, just as is done with traditional electronic circuits, producing moving images on a living screen.


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