Soon naturally luminous wood capable of emitting light

Researchers have found a way to make wood bioluminescent. A process resembling fireflies or glow worms.

Imagine a solid wood table. In broad daylight, you don’t see any difference, it’s a table like any other. But as soon as night falls, it will emit a soft green light in a completely natural way, just like fireflies or glowing greens. This is what researchers from EMPA in Switzerland have just developed. A technique to make wood bioluminescent. This means that we could mark the roads with it and be guided by their soft light when we return late at night, for example.

In fact, these researchers walked in the forest and noticed that certain pieces of wood sometimes glowed at night, thanks to bioluminescent fungi (mushrooms that have the same enzyme as fireflies). They therefore sought to recreate and amplify the phenomenon in the laboratory. They then bathed the wood in a mixture of mushrooms. And it became naturally bioluminescent. It’s very beautiful. It’s almost magical. Unfortunately, it’s not very bright (the intensity of a candle, no more). And for now, it only lasts about ten days. Which is a bit short. But the good news is that they already have several avenues to successfully maintain this brightness for years. Which would make wood a real sustainable light source.

Several start-ups, such as the French company Woodlight, are working on luminous plants that could be used as a bedside lamp. And it works, it’s really like in Avatar.
Problem: their plants are genetically modified to become luminous. They are GMOs. So this poses problems of possible contamination in nature.

This is not the case with the Swiss researchers’ wood. This is dead wood. Which considerably broadens the scope of application. Architects could add bright wood veneers to bus shelters or store fronts. This would make it possible to provide cities with soft, natural lighting without light pollution.