How Do Fireflies Glow?

Researchers explain the mechanism for firefly bioluminescence 

Written byAmerican Chemical Society
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Warm summer nights wouldn’t be complete without the beautiful glow of fireflies. But until recently, we didn’t really understand how fireflies produced their glow. Now Bruce Branchini, PhD, from Connecticut College and colleagues at Yale University have recreated the firefly’s glow in the lab. This bright discovery, published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to exciting applications in medicine.

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