This “Soil Lamp” by Marieke Staps is made of mud and lights an LED through the natural metabolism of the biological organisms contained within it. We’ve seen fruit powering electronics before, but building it into something that resembles a commercial product is still pretty far off.
Soil Lamp via Next Nature
2 thoughts on “Soil lamp burns LEDs and wants to be a plant”
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Ok – I was intrigued by the concept of “biological organisms” in the mud that produce electricity, so I followed the link. What the summary doesn’t include are the parts where it says this:
“Free and environmentally friendly energy forever and ever . . . The mud is enclosed in various cells. These cells contain copper and zinc that conduct the electricity . . . The only thing the lamp needs is a splash of water every now and then.”
Now, an LED lamp powered by copper/zinc cells with a mud electrolyte is kind of cool, but there are no magical biological organisms involved, and the lamp will inevitably stop functioning once the chemical reaction has run its course. In any case, they’ve been making little digital clocks powered like this for a long time, so it’s not exactly a huge leap forward.