Eventually, says Mr Burt, the ability of dye-based cells to produce useful quantities of power even in dim and diffuselight could see them used outside, perhaps on rooftops in cloudier parts of the world a market at present dominated by traditional, silicon-based cells, even though they are not well-suited to the purpose.
The beetles performed best when confronted with a perfect starry sky projected on to the planetarium dome, but coped just as well when shown only the diffuse bar of light that is the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.