It’s devilishly simple.<\/p>\n
There’s this curious substance known as Luciferin.\u00a0 This stuff has the ability to mix with cellular energy – Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP – to create Luciferyl Adenylate and Pyrophosphate.\u00a0 Got that?\u00a0 But wait, there’s more.\u00a0 The Luciferyl Adenylate turns right around and reacts with Oxygen to create Oxyluciferin and Adenosine Monophosphate.\u00a0 Okay?\u00a0 But here’s the really wicked part: that second reaction is what your chemistry teacher would have called “exothermic.”\u00a0 It’s a reaction that gives off energy, in this case in the form of light.\u00a0 In wavelengths of between 501 and 670 nanometers.\u00a0 Which the human eye sees as colors ranging from pale yellow to reddish green.\u00a0 Oh the chemical\u00a0irony!\u00a0 Luciferin, named for the Lord of Darkness, can be used to create…a celestial glow!!<\/p>\n
And where does this minor miracle happen?\u00a0 Right in your yard, of course.\u00a0 Or, more specifically, in the abdomen of an insect your biology teacher would have called Pyrophorus noctiluca.\u00a0 This little fella flies around with a belly full of Luciferin.\u00a0 Each time he takes a breath, some Oxygen reaches the Luciferin and produces a short, unmistakable burst of heavenly light.\u00a0 Then, as he breathes out, the light goes out.\u00a0 And so on…<\/p>\n
You can see it for yourself, in your own homemade biochem lab.\u00a0 Just go outside this weekend and catch a firefly on your hand.\u00a0 He will invariably climb up onto the highest point.\u00a0 And then, before he takes off, he’ll just sit there, getting ready.<\/p>\n
Breathing in, and out.\u00a0 Blinking on, and off.\u00a0 In, out, on, off.<\/p>\n
It’s simple.\u00a0 It’s miraculous.\u00a0 It’s wicked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s devilishly simple. There’s this curious substance known as Luciferin.\u00a0 This stuff has the ability to mix with cellular energy – Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP – to create Luciferyl Adenylate and Pyrophosphate.\u00a0 Got that?\u00a0 But wait, there’s more.\u00a0 The Luciferyl Adenylate turns right around and reacts with Oxygen to create…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[236,435,741,763],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-6","tag-chemical-reaction","tag-firefly","tag-light","tag-luciferin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}