Before Teresa van Dongen studied design, she studied biology. Which explains a lot about how and why her most recent project, the Ambio light, came to be. The Ambio, an elegant brass lighting fixture, doesn’t use typical incandescent bulbs. Instead its light source is bioluminescent bacteria found on octopus tentacles. When exposed to oxygen, these micro-organisms emit a soft blue hue that glows like an organic nightlight.

The Dutch designer created the Ambio for her graduation project at Eindhoven’s Design Academy. It began as an investigation into how we might be able to use new forms of energy to create lighting. Van Dongen got in touch with some of her old biology professors and started experimenting with bioluminescent algae, but it turned out that algae is able to only briefly spark with light every 30 minutes rather than emitting a long-lasting illumination. Photobacterium bacteria, on the other hand, is capable of glowing for long periods of time so long as it’s exposed to oxygen.

Unlike most pendants, the Ambio couldn’t be static. Van Dongen explains that in order to make the bacteria glow consistently she had to build motion into her lamp. It also couldn’t rely on constant human contact to power that motion—not only would that be impractical, it would totally erase its magic. She decided to experiment with making a perpetuum mobile and landed on the idea of using two weights of varying heft. When pushed, the round brass weight throws the lamp out of balance, swishing the artificial seawater and the bacteria back and forth for up to 20 minutes.

Right now, the bacteria in the lamp can only live for a few days. She’s working with biologists to extend its lifespan and brightness. Though she says to make the light bright enough to read a book by they’ll likely have to augment bacteria synthetically.

In its current form, van Dongen compares the Ambio to a needy pet. Ideally, she’d like it to be more like a plant, something that you’d feed every few days to ensure it stays alive. Not surprisingly, Van Dongen has fielded quite a few requests from people wanting their own Ambio. Unfortunately, it takes more than just flipping the switch “First I ask them if they are biotechnicians,” she says. “And if they are, then I tell them they can have one.”