A building lighted by cosmic rays

A new commercial building in Japan has taken a leap past solar-powered lighting: It's harnessing cosmic rays.

Pink Tentacle reports that the industrial complex, in the southern city of Kobe, is equipped with a "Super Nova" lighting system that includes 2,880 blue LEDs on the entire exterior of the building's 18-story west wall. "According to Takuro Osaka, the University of Tsukuba Graduate School professor who designed the system, the brightness of the blue lights fluctuates according to the intensity of the detected cosmic rays, giving the building an ever-changing magical glow," the blog says.

We'll take his word for it.