Have you ever experienced the wonders of the bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico or the the Maldives? Have you seen the waves break on the shores in San Diego and create a magical blue glow under the starlit sky? Not many of us have.
Yonder Biology, founded in California in 2009, was started by biologists that wanted to bring science to a whole other level: that of presenting Science in a fun manner, and creating sustainable, Biology-based products. The team began with customized DNA art and currently has one of the hottest art pieces at the Smithsonian’s Unlocking Life’s Code exhibit.
Yonder Biology recently created a popular biological product by introducing to the world the Dino Pet! At the intersection of art and life, it has been described as a better sea-monkey by Engadget, a fun learning tool by Gizmag, the new Tamagotchi by ABC News, an adorable pet by Wired, talked about by Guy Kawasaki as well as FastCompany and just “awesome Science” by PBS! A group in Wisconsin even made a song about it.
The Dino Pet is really in fact a very simple idea and can be what you make it to be. That is why it has received such a glowing response over the past three weeks on its Kickstarter campaign and tripled the funding goal that the company set.
Dino Pet lives! Dino Pet is an art piece. Dino Pet is living art. There are no batteries, no wires, nothing to rewind. Like a plant, it photo-synthesizes during the day. As you care for it, the bioluminescence becomes more intense. Like a pet you can take care of it and hold a special place for it in your daily routines. It is not genetically modified. Kickstarter actually stopped authorizing such projects after the press received around the glowing plant project. The Dino Pet is resistant to forgetting about it. All it needs for months is 12 hours of indirect sunlight and 12 hours of darkness. That’s when the magic happens. When you shake the Dino Pet, it will glow brilliantly. The dinoflagellates that are contained in this fun apatosaurus-like shaped container, are bioluminescent. That means that when you play with them, they glow!
So for all of you out there who don’t have green thumbs, who don’t like ant farms in your home, who don’t always remember to feed the fish, or who want to go on holiday for a couple weeks without needing a pet sitter, this may be the perfect pet.
Their campaign on kickstarter runs through September 15th, and then we bet they will be hard at work on getting those living bioluminescent pets out the door!
