Dutch designer Ermi van Oers has created a lamp that uses a living plant to generate its own electricity – and plans to scale up the technology to power entire smart cities. The Living Light uses microorganisms to convert the chemical energy that a plant naturally produces during photosynthesis into an electric current. Van Oers designed the lamp to be fully self-sufficient, so it can function off-grid, rather than needing to be plugged into an electrical socket. She has already began to apply the technology – known as microbial energy – to public spaces, and is collaborating with the municipality of Rotterdam to light up one of its parks. Van Oers claims that future cities could be powered exclusively by plants in a similar way, by replacing the electric grid with a more sustainable microbial energy system.