It’s a light show of sorts but it involves bacteria and fluorescent protein,

Thanks to the Dec. 19, 2011 news item on Nanwerk, I was able to access both the video and some additional information,

In an example of life imitating art, biologists and bioengineers at UC [University of California] San Diego have created a living neon sign composed of millions of bacterial cells that periodically fluoresce in unison like blinking light bulbs. Their achievement, detailed in this week’s advance online issue of the journal Nature  (“A sensing array of radically coupled genetic ‘biopixels'”), involved attaching a fluorescent protein to the biological clocks of the bacteria, synchronizing the clocks of the thousands of bacteria within a colony, then synchronizing thousands of the blinking bacterial colonies to glow on and off in unison.

Here’s how scientists think this could be useful,

 Using the same method to create the flashing signs, the researchers engineered a simple bacterial sensor capable of detecting low levels of arsenic. In this biological sensor, decreases in the frequency of the oscillations of the cells’ blinking pattern indicate the presence and amount of the arsenic poison.

Because bacteria are sensitive to many kinds of environmental pollutants and organisms, the scientists believe this approach could be also used to design low cost bacterial biosensors capable of detecting an array of heavy metal pollutants and disease-causing organisms. And because the senor is composed of living organisms, it can respond to changes in the presence or amount of the toxins over time unlike many chemical sensors.

“These kinds of living sensors are intriguing as they can serve to continuously monitor a given sample over long periods of time, whereas most detection kits are used for a one-time measurement,” said Jeff Hasty, a professor of biology and bioengineering at UC San Diego who headed the research team in the university’s Division of Biological Sciences and BioCircuits Institute. “Because the bacteria respond in different ways to different concentrations by varying the frequency of their blinking pattern, they can provide a continual update on how dangerous a toxin or pathogen is at any one time.”

There are more details in the news item on Nanowerk.

Scientists have been experimenting with other uses for fluorescent bacteria, lighting. From the Nov. 28, 2011 article by Jaymi Heimbuch for Treehugger,

Here, Philips has shown off a concept for a light that runs on not grid electricity, not solar power, not even wind power. Nope, it runs on bacteria.

According to Philips, “The concept explores the use of bioluminescent bacteria, which are fed with methane and composted material (drawn from the methane digester in the Microbial Home system). Alternatively the cellular light array can be filled with fluorescent proteins that emit different frequencies of light.”

I gather the concept isn’t ready for houselighting yet but Philips does have some proposals (from the Philips Bio-light page),

 Bioluminescence produces low-intensity light, more suitable for tracing, warning, ambience and indication than functional illumination. Its speed of generation, being dependent on chemical reaction, is slower than most conventional light sources and the life form itself must be kept alive. But it needs no wires and is independent of the electricity grid. The living nature of the material provides interesting possibilities for changing, unpredictable, environmentally responsible ambient effects.

…

• Night-time road markings, eg bioluminescent plants that indicate where the edge of the road is
• Warning strips on flights of stairs, kerbsides etc
• Informational markings in low-light settings, eg. theatres, cinemas, nightclubs
• Diagnostic indicators, eg. a colored body health map in the home apothecary, pollution levels, local bacterial ecology etc
• Monitoring the status of diseases like diabetes in individual patients, using bioluminescent biosensors

New genres of atmospheric interior lighting with, for example, possible therapeutic and mood-enhancing effects.

There you have it, bacteria will light the way.