The beautiful Glow

For this action project the class was assigned to either learn from a animal, using that animal to create a design or to challenge that animal. I decided to learn from an animal using it as a sort of "model" to redesign a product. The animal I chose was a Firefly. I will be using a Firefly to create a more efficient lamp. The lamp would be able to conserve more energy, but yet create the same amount of light as a light bulb.

Pan, Licheich. "Firefly". Flicker. Yahoo!, 1 April. 2006. web. 20 November. 2013

`


A Firefly is mostly known for their beautiful glow that they produce. The science of that is called bioluminescene. Its when the cells in the Firefly's tail make Luciferase Enzyme and then creates a chemical reaction that produces a light. The light they produce is different from a light bulb because the light is cold instead of hot, which saves them because if the light was hot they would die because of all the energy they are loosing. A light bulb uses 90% of its energy on heat, while all the energy put into Luciferase is simply light. A product that would benefit from a Firefly would be a nightlight that produces the same light a Firefly produces and also using the same amount of low energy.

To come up with this design I had to do research on how a light bulb works and contrast that with a way a firefly works. A light bulb produces light when electrical currents pass through a wire that makes the wire heat up and eventually it gets so hot that it produces a light. The Light bulb waste more energy because it produces heat, while a Firefly produces a cool kind of light. An idea that I had was create the same kind of light a Firefly uses which is called Luciferase. From that I can produce a more efficient light bulb.

RD, Photography. Fire Fly. Chicago Illinois  

The Light bulb would work very simple, the same way a Firefly works which is by a chemical reaction. I would apply luciferin and combine that with oxygen and then with luciferase making the bulb light up with a cool light. The light bulb would be able to produce any color light because each organism with luciferase has a different color light that they produce.

Citations:
"Why do Fireflies glow?" . huffingtonpost.com. NP. May 25, 2013. web. November 20, 2013