108 LIGHT + TECH


LUCID LIFE CHRIS BELLAMY


Chris Bellamy is a biodesigner and engineer who studied engineering at the University of Cambridge. Starting at Jaguar Land Rover (helping to develop its first electric vehicle, the Jaguar I-Pace), he then moved to developing customisable and recyclable shoes. His research now is focused on how living materials can be used in our everyday lives, ‘co-evolving traditional knowledge with the latest scientific research’. After a bio-prospecting trip to


French Polynesia in search of novel microorganisms, Bellamy was inspired by the indigenous community’s connection to nature, and wanted to see how design could bring these two worlds together. The result was Lucid Life, or ‘Marama Ora’ in Tahitian, based on a living material that emits light in response to touch.


Developed with the support of the


Francis Crick Institute for biomedical discovery, the material uses bioluminescent algae, like those that live symbiotically with corals. The microorganisms are encapsulated in a way that enables them to live, sequester carbon, and emit light for more than six months. They need only sunlight in return.


In collaboration with three different


Polynesian artisans, Bellamy co-created a series of artefacts using the


bioluminescent material: a drum, a swimsuit and a necklace, ‘which demonstrate how living materials can reconnect us to nature, and how biotechnology can move beyond the laboratory’. chris@biocrafted.com


All images The material uses bioluminescent algae, like those that live symbiotically with corals


Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism. It is a type of chemiluminescence, or the chemical reaction where light is produced. (Bioluminescence is chemiluminescence that takes place inside a living organism.) Most bioluminescent organisms are found in the ocean and include fish, bacteria and jellyfish. Some bioluminescent organisms, including fireflies and fungi, are found on land. There are almost no bioluminescent organisms native to freshwater habitats The chemical reaction that results in bioluminescence needs two unique chemicals: luciferin and either luciferase or photoprotein. Luciferin is the compound that actually produces light. The bioluminescent colour (yellow in fireflies, greenish in lanternfish) is a result of the arrangement of luciferin molecules. Some bioluminescent organisms, such as dinoflagellates – a type of plankton – synthesise luciferin independently. These are the tiny marine organisms that can sometimes be seen sparkling on the surface of the sea. Most bioluminescent reactions involve luciferin and luciferase, but some involve a chemical called a photoprotein. Photoproteins combine with luciferins and oxygen, but need another agent, often an ion of the element calcium, to produce light.


Photoproteins were only recently identified, and scientists are still studying their unusual chemical properties. Photoproteins were first studied in bioluminescent crystal jellyfish, Aequorea victoria, found off the west coast of North America. Source: National Geographic (Education)


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