Crossword clues for bioluminescence
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Luminescence \Lu`mi*nes"cence\, n. [See Luminescent.]
(Physics) Any emission of light not ascribable directly to incandescence, and therefore occurring at low temperatures, as in phosphorescence and fluorescence or other luminous radiation resulting from vital processes, chemical action, friction, solution, or the influence of light or of ultraviolet or cathode rays, etc.
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(Zo["o]l.)
The faculty or power of producing light by biological processes, as in the firefly and glowworm. Also called bioluminescence.
The light produced by biological or biochemical processes. Also called bioluminescence.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also bio-luminescence, 1909; see bio- + luminescence.
Wiktionary
n. (context biology biochemistry English) The emission of light by a living organism (such as a firefly).
WordNet
n. luminescence produced by physiological processes (as in the firefly)
Wikipedia
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some bioluminescent bacteria and terrestrial invertebrates such as fireflies. In some animals, the light is produced by symbiotic organisms such as Vibrio bacteria.
The principal chemical reaction in bioluminescence involves the light-emitting pigment luciferin and the enzyme luciferase, assisted by other proteins such as aequorin in some species. The enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of luciferin. In some species, the type of luciferin requires cofactors such as calcium or magnesium ions, and sometimes also the energy-carrying molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). In evolution, luciferins vary little: one in particular, coelenterazine, is found in nine different animal ( phyla), though in some of these, the animals obtain it through their diet. Conversely, luciferases vary widely in different species. Bioluminescence has arisen over forty times in evolutionary history.
Both Aristotle and Pliny the Elder mentioned that damp wood sometimes gives off a glow and many centuries later Robert Boyle showed that oxygen was involved in the process, both in wood and in glow-worms. It was not until the late nineteenth century that bioluminescence was properly investigated. The phenomenon is widely distributed among animal groups, especially in marine environments where dinoflagellates cause phosphorescence in the surface layers of water. On land it occurs in fungi, bacteria and some groups of invertebrates, including insects.
The uses of bioluminescence by animals include counter-illumination camouflage, mimicry of other animals, for example to lure prey, and signalling to other individuals of the same species, such as to attract mates. In the laboratory, luciferase-based systems are used in genetic engineering and for biomedical research. Other researchers are investigating the possibility of using bioluminescent systems for street and decorative lighting, and a bioluminescent plant has been created.
Usage examples of "bioluminescence".
The bioluminescence spreads throughout the roots, until they glow like a vast system of fiberoptics.
The only light was the fetid bioluminescence coming off the heaps of garbage.
They wandered onward, and the green bioluminescence of the Integument began to die down.
There was no light except the bioluminescence of his captors, apparently waiting overhead.
She seemed at ease with her bizarre parasite, utterly human except for the bioluminescence in her hands.
He checked every day for changes to his body but so far all he had developed was an absence of body hair and bioluminescence around his tattoos.
The clean-up team seemed to be taking great interest in the bioluminescence in his hands.
The only light now came from the bioluminescence of microscopic creatures floating in the heavy air.
For a few moments they were silent, and their bioluminescence curiously subdued.
In moonless dark, lights pulsed below the waters, like the bioluminescence of benthic things magnified many hundreds of times.
Through the semitransparent steelglass he could see the blurred images of people moving in an insectlike mass, and the large globes of bioluminescence suspended from the ceilings, giving everything a radiant cast.
Now that it was in the deep darkness of the cave, the creature was shining brightly with its own internally generated light This was not the phosphorescence of putrefaction, but a deeply originated glow which shone through the deep and waxlike skin and hinted of luminous reactions unconnected with bioluminescence.
To Molly, this seemed not to be the usual eye-shine of animals in the dark, but a phenomenon unique to this night, not simple light refraction, not bioluminescence, but something of a wondrous character: nimbuses pooled in sockets, signifying sanctification.
Gengineered philodendrons, their bioluminescence just barely visible in the shadows beneath their leaves, grew from pots near the wall and promised a night-time illumination bright enough to let one find one's way from room to room.