Blood Lamp is Powered By Your Essence

[Tom Goldman]

Blood Lamp is Powered By Your Essence

This lamp runs on a very different type of power source: your blood.

Mike Thompson, an English designer based in The Netherlands, has invented a light source than runs on human blood. After mixing in an activating powder, simply smash the blood lamp's top end on a table, cut yourself open, drip some of your blood in, and watch it glow in a wonderful blue hue.

It may seem like Thompson is trying to cash-in on the Twilight craze, but his intentions were much more creative and noble than that. He was researching chemical energy and happened to learn about luminol, a chemical often used in forensics to find blood at a crime scene. Luminol glows bright blue when mixed with the iron in red blood cells. Thompson thought: "if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it."

The blood lamp is pretty awesome, but unfortunately it can only be used once. Not only must you bleed to light it up, you have to carefully choose when to bleed. Thompson really thought out this whole statement on the usage of energy, didn't he? There is video of the blood lamp in action [http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=LS_090930_blood-lamp] up on LiveScience, showing just how it works, just make sure you don't mind seeing someone bleed a little before watching.

(Via: io9 [http://io9.com/5374196/light-bulb-runs-on-human-blood])

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[kawligia]

If it's the iron in the blood that causes the reaction, why not just put a small iron ingot into the chemical?

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

I must now find and buy a crate of these.
Imagine the power I could wield.... Auuuuhahahaha!

I really shouldn't listen to Kira's Laugh over and over... I think it's starting to affect me.

 

[Izerous]

Pretty creative use.

 

[Mana Fiend]

I want one designed to make it look like Audrey II...

 

[Amnestic]

I assume (with my very limited scientific understanding) if it works with human blood it'd also work with animal blood, something you could likely pick up at your local Mom and Pop butcher without too much issue. Would save you cutting yourself open

 

[MajoraPersona]

I bet you could kill two birds with that lamp.

 

[dark_taint92]

I'd love to have one of those just when i want to be scary, would be awesome look at me i can change the colour of water with my blood

 

[somekindarobot]

Thompson thought: "if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it."

Isn't money enough?

Many people are already being bled dry when it comes to energy, no need to make the metaphorical literal.

I do think this may be popular amongst the S&M crowd, though.

 

[Iron Mal]

Wounding ourselves for a small bit of light that can only be used once?

That sounds like a genius invention amd will totally revolutionise the way we look at light sources in this crazy world...I can't keep lying, that is by far one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of.

On the bright side (pun not intended) you would have a very useful replacement for a flashlight provided you are an emo or have a steady supply of emos on hand.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

That is SO COOL.

I recently had a chance to talk to SOCO (British version of CSI) and they use it all the time.

But a blood lamp? Do want!

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Why do I feel like you have to shout "For the Chaos Gods!" whenever you do this?

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Makes me wanna start an evil cult that sacrifices blood to the Blood Lamps. Does anyone know where to get a steady supply of babies and virgins born during a full moon, an eclipse or maybe at a point where all the planets in this solar system were aligned?

 

[twistedmic]

I'd rather just buy some glow-sticks if I needed non-electric, non-flame based light sources. You probably get around the same amount of light and usage out of both Blood Lamp and Glow-stick but with the glow-stick you don't have to cut yourself open.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Why do I feel like you have to shout "For the Chaos Gods!" whenever you do this?

That, or "And now... the final ingredient!"

 

[hansari]

Thompson thought: "if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it."

Isn't money enough?

This is why I couldn't help but laugh at his FAIL...

Now if he made a car that ran on blood...and it did so reasonably well per liter...well then we would have a moral dilemma...

 

[HentMas]

hum... how much does luminol costs and for how long does it stays lit??

if cost effective this would be an awesome bedside lamp

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

... Must... Resist... Urge... To... Crack... Emo Joke!!!

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

That's...gross, but very creative! I had no idea that you could make technology like this that ran on blood. Maybe you could feed the Blood Lamp pig blood or something to avoid hurting yourself. Or just hook a live animal up to the lamp. The possibilities are endless.

 

[somekindarobot]

Thompson thought: "if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it."

Isn't money enough?

This is why I couldn't help but laugh at his FAIL...

Now if he made a car that ran on blood...and it did so reasonably well per liter...well then we would have a moral dilemma...

Or we could just use blood from animals we slaughter anyway, and I don't think there is any difference between that and human blood that could possibly make any difference, so even on that level it is a moral dilemma fail. Unless the dilemma is if cheap blood sausages and blood puddings are something you'd sacrifice to sustainable energy, that is. Or the risk of PETA and other self-righteous vegetarians getting even more in our faces.