Product review: EMPCO Bioluminescent algae

GLOW BABY, GLOW! 

Tired of giving boring and obligatory gifts for Christmas? Looking for that unique, off-the-wall gift for your special someone?  Did you get into the movie Avatar a little more than expected?  If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, EMPCO's bio-luminescent algae cultures may be just what you're looking for to WOW gift recipients this holiday season.

As a fellow pursuer of the curious, I made a somewhat rash decision one night after downing a few too many shots of tequila to purchase a beaker of this in an effort to make my 800 sq ft apartment glow blue without the use of electricity.  Don't judge me.  I was playing Skyrim and thought those glowing mushrooms would be pretty cool to have.  Hindsight is 20/20, friends.  Nevertheless, it was still a very cool purchase.

EMPCO provides reasonably-priced beakers full of procystis fusiformis, procystis nociluta and procystis lunula for around $25.00 each.  They also offer more comprehensive packages for around $100.00 which includes other equipment and solutions intended on keeping your cultures alive longer.  It is up to you to decide which package is right for you.  For what it's worth, I opted for the less expensive package and my culture kept chugging along for about two months.

So here's how it works:

Contrary to what the photo attached to this article (which was taken from the EMPCO website) would have you believe, you should not expect that brilliant blue glow, at least not to that magnitude.  Granted, I'm no phycologist, so I may have just cultured them incorrectly, but the intensity of glowing blue light my algae gave off was about 1/10 of what you see in the photo.  The algae also operate on a circadian rhythm, meaning that they'll only glow blue during the dead of night.  Don't bother trying this during the day in a dark room.  It won't work.  Furthermore, don't expect to wake up to the beaker glowing by itself in the middle of the night as the light is only given off if the beaker is disturbed.  Instructions recommend you lightly shake the bottle.  Surely enough, though, when all conditions are met, you'll be witness to a very satisfying (yet very temporary) iridescent blue glow.

The verdict:

Regardless of how much the algae makes you work for it, I still recommend this as a purchase for any curious soul.  It is very cool to have a beaker of bioluminescent algae on your counter-top at home, either as a conversation piece or just to satisfy your own curiosity as a science dork.  If you really want to understand the science behind what's going on in that little beaker, I would also recommend checking out one of the following books as well: The Optics of Life; Johnsen, 2012 or Bioluminescence - Living Lights, Lights for Living, Wilson & Hastings, 2013; the latter of the two being easier to understand to the lay man (also has nicer photos).

Cultures are available at EMPCO.org.

Categories: Science