Yep, you read it correctly. Scientists from UC San Diego have figured out how to make bacteria glow. The Los Angeles Times is calling it a “living LED screen” made up of “biopixels,” AKA fluorescent, flashing E. coli bacteria. It began in 2008 when lead researcher biology and bioengineering professor Jeff Hasty published a paper stating that his team had figured out how to fit a tiny biological clock into a single bacteria cell that would tell it when to emit a flashing, glowing light.

Then, the team discovered in 2010 how to get several bacteria to blink their lights in unison. The most recent discovery found that using a special vapor, different bacteria colonies could communicate with each other and therefore send signals over long distances. (“Long” in the bacteria world is 1 centimeter, by the way.) This allowed the bacteria in different colonies to blink on and off at the same time. According to The LA Times, “It’s all on a very micro scale right now. So far, the scientists have made screens — or chips — of two sizes. The larger chip contains about 13,000 colonies, or biopixels, (50 to 60 million bacterial cells) and is about the size of a paper clip. The smaller chip (pictured above) contains about 2.5 million cells — or 500 colonies — and is about a 10th of the size of the larger chip.”

And just what are the applications for living, bacteria-laced lighting, one might wonder? Well, let’s just say you shouldn’t plan on having any LED wall lights or LED puck lights crawling with microscopic bugs any time soon. Turns out bacteria can detect low levels of certain poisonous substances, like arsenic. “So if you are in Bangladesh and you want to know if there is arsenic in your water, you could use a sensor made out of these chips,” Hasty said. “That’s more the direction we are headed.”

Thanks to The LA Times for the quotes and image.