Nature's Glow-BIOLUMINESCENSE

The pictures look like a bunch of led lights, right? Well, these pictures are actually of bioluminescent animals producing light in their very own body!

Now, chemiluminescence is the process of producing light from a chemical reaction, and bioluminescence is when chemiluminescence occurs in a living organism. It is very common in algae, algae, jellyfish, crustaceans, worms, fish, etc.

These organisms use bioluminescence to catch prey, find mates, defend themselves, etc.

For any bioluminescence reaction to occur, the organism must contain luciferin (C11H8N2O3S2), which on reaction with oxygen emits light. Luciferin is the substrate which on reaction with oxygen, produces the product-oxyluciferin. The oxyluciferin produced is in an electronically excited state (excitation of electrons takes place) and when the electrons fall back to the ground state, they come under the visible region of light. Enzyme luciferase helps speeding up the reaction.

The light emitted is usually shades of blue or green as these colors have short wavelengths which can travel underwater. Colors with longer wavelength such as red cant travel underwater, and hence many deep-sea animals are red in color, to use as a camouflaging mechanism.

Now wont the bioluminescent animals turn extremely hot on producing light for so long?

Well, they do not, as this light produced in cold light, light that produces zero heat.

Unlike normal things that emit light, cold light does not dissipate energy in the form of heat. In fact, the energy released is in a form that actually helps the animal in its own energy needs.

-Aalia Imran