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bioluminescence

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The emission of visible light by certain living organisms, such as the firefly and various fish, marine invertebrates, fungi, and bacteria. Bioluminescence is caused by chemical reactions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology, biochemistry The emission of light by a living organism (such as a firefly).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun luminescence produced by physiological processes (as in the firefly)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

bio- +‎ luminescence

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Examples

  • I wanted to study and clarify the chemical mechanism of aequorin bioluminescence, since some people doubted the existence of a photoprotein like aequorin.

    Osamu Shimomura - Autobiography 2009

  • 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.

    Osamu Shimomura - Autobiography 2009

  • 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.

    Osamu Shimomura - Autobiography 2009

  • Woody, a pioneer in bioluminescence research and one of the early researchers studying GFP, who was a new and especially kind faculty member.

    Martin Chalfie - Autobiography 2009

  • 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.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Candid Engineer 2008

  • 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.

    Chasing Fireflies Candid Engineer 2008

  • 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.

    Weatherwatch: glow-worms 2011

  • This phenomenon is called bioluminescence, and anyone who has cruised a tropic sea at night will know of it.

    Where Wonders Await Us Flannery, Tim 2007

  • 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 Clarke, Arthur C. 1982

  • This ability, called bioluminescence, is strikingly common, shared by as many as 90 percent of the creatures in the open ocean.

    NYT > Home Page By ERIK OLSEN 2011

Comments

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  • "Some people say I got a psychedelic presence

    Shining in the dark like bioluminescence"

    Jolie Holland

    June 14, 2007

  • 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.

    July 6, 2009