Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Emission of visible light by living organisms such as the firefly and various fish, fungi, and bacteria.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a type of luminescence produced by biological or biochemical processes, such as a glowworm glow or the action of luciferase on luciferin. A well-known example is that of firefly luminescence. See also luciferin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. luminescence produced by physiological processes (as in the firefly)
Examples
“Woody, a pioneer in bioluminescence research and one of the early researchers studying GFP, who was a new and especially kind faculty member.”
“If the disappearance of the jellyfish had occurred 20 years earlier, we wouldn't have been able to learn the mechanism of the aequorin bioluminescence reaction, as well as the chromophore of GFP.”
“At this symposium, almost all the well-known researchers in bioluminescence and related fields gathered from all over the world, including Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien, Shimya Inoué and Atsushi Miyawaki.”
“I wanted to study and clarify the chemical mechanism of aequorin bioluminescence, since some people doubted the existence of a photoprotein like aequorin.”
“Funny to think that I used to do little more than chase fireflies around the yard; now, I make use of their proteins in bioluminescence assays.”
“So as the males fly overhead, she illuminates a small patch towards the rear of her abdomen, which produces an extraordinary greenish-yellow light, via a process known as bioluminescence.”
“This phenomenon is called bioluminescence, and anyone who has cruised a tropic sea at night will know of it.”
“Once, recalling the bioluminescence of their own seas, some Europans had speculated that these might indeed be living creatures; but their intensity makes that almost incredible.”
2010 Odyssey Two
“This ability, called bioluminescence, is strikingly common, shared by as many as 90 percent of the creatures in the open ocean.”
“Steve Haddock and his colleagues from MBARI are studying bioluminescence, which is another method of cephalopod camouflage.”
Lists
‘bioluminescence’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
madmouth what it comes down to is being inhabited by glowing intestine bacteria.
certain life-forms (like a species of krill in the very deep ocean) can squirt bioluminescent goo to distract predators; a real-life superpower. Jul 6, 2009
deliriumslibrarian "Some people say I got a psychedelic presence
Shining in the dark like bioluminescence"
Jolie Holland Jun 13, 2007