They need to be supplied with a charge. You can light them by placing a redstone torch on an adjacent block, or you could link them with redstone dust to a lever, the level will provide a charge when 'on' and light the lamp.
You could hook up Redstone lamps to daylight sensors.
Redstone Lamps are made using the following recipe. r = redstone dust g = glowstone block [ ][r][ ] [r][g][r] [ ][r][ ]
You mine it from redstone ore.
You need an iron pickaxe to get redstone in Minecraft.
u get a redstone trail connected to it and a lever/button/pushplate an then step on the push plate/push the button/pull the lever and it will turn off.
You have to mine redstone ore.
As of 06/29/14, there are no Redstone Blocks in the PS3 version of Minecraft.
Yes, redstone can activate any type of door in minecraft :)
Redstone Blocks now exist in Minecraft 1.5. You can make them by combining nine redstone dust on the crafting table.
You can mine redstone with an Iron, Gold or Diamond pickaxe.
If this is happening after being place, it could possibly be due to not enough light. Add torches/glowstone/redstone lamps and they should stay planted and then grow.
Redstone Ore veins are found below layer 16. veins are most common on layer 8. There are 25 ores per chunk on average.Sources: Redstone Ore - Minecraft WikiOre - Minecraft Wiki