#luciferin

[onequeermushroom]

so i just found out that the name for the compound that generates bioluminescence is called luciferin. which sounds fake but it's not. and it's literally named after lucifer. not the devil but the latin word meaning light bearer. i love chemistry sometimes

[polarmolecule]

Fun Facts about Fireflies and Fluorescence under the cut :)

FUN ANIMAL FACT: Fireflies glow due to a chemical reaction between the molecule Luciferin and the enzyme Luciferase (and quite a few other molecules including ATP and oxygen). While fireflies use their bioluminescence for mating reasons, the reaction can be used in a test named the -ATP fluorescence assay- to detect bacteria in various bodily samples and monitor levels of photosynthesis in crop fields (although it was originally developed to potentially detect living cells on Mars)

[quotesfrommyreading]

Fireflies, known as lightning bugs in the South and Midwest, are neither flies nor bugs. Scientists save the word “bug” for a specific kind of insect with sucking mouthparts—a definition that excludes ants, butterflies and beetles. Fireflies are beetles—magical, but still six-legged insects.

Adult fireflies use their glow as “a love song in light,” as Tennessee-based firefly expert Lynn Faust puts it. A male will flash his signal, and a female will flash a response when she recognizes one of her own species. The females of a few firefly species Heckscher studies can also manipulate their flashes to lure fireflies from other species, which they then eat. In firefly larvae, the glow warns predators of toxic chemical defenses, much as the red of a ladybug or the orange of a monarch butterfly does.

A number of land creatures make light from chemicals, including various fungi, earthworms, millipedes and fungus gnats, Lewis writes. But beetles are the champion, with about 2,500 different species that make light, most of them fireflies. Their glow comes from an abdominal organ called the lantern. Inside that organ, oxygen interacts with a small, energy-packed molecule called luciferin. Some scientists believe fireflies create their pulsating patterns by regulating the flow of air.

There are at least 2,200 firefly species around the globe. Each has a glowing larval (immature) form. These larvae eat snails, slugs and worms, punching way above their weight in the web of life. But not all firefly species have adults that glow. Roughly 60 to 75 percent do, according to Oliver Keller, a biologist with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, who is putting together a checklist of the world’s firefly species. These species are mostly found in Asia and in North America, east of the Rocky Mountains. Fireflies thrive where the air and the ground are moist, and the American West is generally too dry for their taste.

The remaining firefly species are “dark” fireflies. They glow in their juvenile forms, and often as eggs, but not as adults. Instead, these adults find each other through scent-like pheromones, which they detect with elaborate antennae. These fireflies lack the lantern organ that fireflies use to flash. (There are also intermediate species that have both a tiny light organ and elaborate antennae to detect pheromones.) In some other species, the female firefly emits a weak, steady glow but does not fly. She merely crawls to the top of a blade of grass or, perhaps, up a tree trunk.

  —  The Illuminating Science Behind Fireflies

[ms-dlish]

may the dark goddess be with you!🖤

[wickedsrest-rp]

Name: Clement Panallus Species: Nymph (Hesperide) Occupation: Children’s book author / Illustrator Age: 200 Years Old (Looks about 38) Played By: Einar Face Claim: Hugh Dancy

"Please, don't take my picture without my consent."

Clem was a peaceful person right up until he wasn’t. He was well used to humans tramping over his mushrooms and ruining his hard work. He used to have a sense of humor about it when he was young. But now that he’s older, he’s finding it less and less funny. The amount of people who go tramping through mushroom circles looking for cryptids, hiking, or just being stupid has gotten out of hand. The thing that tipped the scales in the direction of hatred was a certain night a few months ago. 

Clem had a system for his job. His work in children’s novels ranged from scientific (usually involving mushrooms since he knew plenty about them) to more fantastical (or, as fantastical as he can get without lying). The illustrations usually came from pictures Clem took of nature. He liked to use the pictures as reference for the art, which he then translated into paintings. He acted as both author and illustrator for his books. And to get things just right for his pictures, he cultivated mushrooms and trees and sections of the forest to make them look glowy and interesting to the eyes of children. The system worked, so he stuck to it. He was well used to things going wrong out in the forest, and he knew that he couldn’t control the destruction time brought. But he did what he could for the sake of his art. 

His latest book had been fighting him. He was at a loss for what to do, and had gone into the forest to see if he could find some inspiration. He toiled for hours and hours to set things up, only to realize that he’d left his camera at home. He went to get it. When he came back, his perfectly-lit mushroom circles had been decimated by some teenagers who had dared each other to walk through the circle.

Clem had lost his temper. He showed the humans that messing with mushroom circles was not a thing to be taken lightly. He took their names and bound them each to promises, forcing them to clean up what they could. However, there was no fixing what had been done. Despondent, Clem told the humans to bury themselves alive, and they did. Clem usually wasn’t so wasteful with life, but that day in particular, he just didn’t have the patience to think of a more fitting fate. 

This wasn’t the first time he’d killed a human in his long life. But this was the first time that he’d been so disturbed by a change in his routine. Perhaps it was foolish of him to think that he could control nature like he was. And he couldn’t expect humans to keep the old fear they’d held for mushroom circles. 

Clem knew that he needed some space. He had to let the heat from the teens die down, and he needed some distance from his routine. After all, it was getting him nowhere. He wasn’t going to get any work done with the way his mind was (nothing appropriate for children, anyways). So he packed up his apartment and moved to Wicked’s Rest, hoping some sea air would be good for him. He told his publisher that he was on a break and made the move from his little town in Wisconsin. It was time to remove some pressure and allow himself to blend in with the tourists in Wicked’s Rest.

Character Facts:

Personality: Creative, curious, focused, particular, perfectionist, stubborn

Clem actually hates kids. He’s so bad with them it’s almost funny. For that reason, he’s never done any type of public reading or signature session despite his modest success as an author. He’s careful to glamour himself to look nothing like his author’s pictures so nobody is likely to recognize him unless they look very close. 

Clem has a system for writing his books, and he can get very touchy if anyone messes with it. The system entails going into the woods to take pictures of mushroom circles and anything else that might make a good picture for the book. He writes his story, and then, he paints using the pictures as reference. The subject of the books can range from scientific and informative to more fantasy-based, but all have strong roots in the dangers of nature. When he gets into creative moods, he can get very particular about everything in his life. People might notice that he looks almost unhealthy, because he neglects everything else when this mood takes hold of him. He gets easily irritated by any interference, and he’s not above making people leave him be by any means necessary. Once he’s finished with his book, though, in between creative swings, he goes back to a relative normality. 

While Clem can be sort of a grump who hates the type of fun that makes him leave his house, he’s trying. He’s on a break from his job, and he’s going to try a lot of the tourism Wicked’s Rest offers. This will probably go very badly. 

Clem is that kind of cat dad who takes his cats with him whenever he leaves the house. Usually it’s Sveppir, a mushroom creature glamoured to look like a regular cat. But occasionally he brings Astros and Solbjort, a pair of real cats, on a leash with him when he goes for groceries. Sveppir comes with him when he goes out to take pictures in the woods, acting as his protector, and warning him of potential dangers. 

While Clem is usually not a fighter, he’s not afraid to defend himself and Sveppir when necessary. He carries knives and tells people where he’s going when he goes out to take pictures. He’s also not afraid to blind people or monsters who press him, or set giant mushrooms on them. And he’s not shy about taking names and ordering annoying teenagers to bury themselves alive, or do other terrible things. After all, what’s one more disappearance in the woods of Wicked’s Rest?

[amngtheflowers]

Your lighthouse, unfaltering amongst the darkest waves

[scootsoot]

I love my 2 gay pairings, tragedy and enemies to lovers that still are enemies /lh

Uhh the 1st one is a redraw of a scene from liverleaf and the 2nd one is a redraw of smth i saw on pinterest

[devilscandyarchive]

1/8/18 source

[deramin2]

"Luciferin Towers" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor really is one of the most beautiful albums ever made. Soundtrack to a revelation about how much everything has to change. The center cannot hold. It is not holding. It is crashing and we have to get people out of the way.

We can't just let chunks of it fall on our heads. The crumbling structure has to come down. We need a plan to do so safely. Every brick we take off is one that can't fall. There's so much hope in that. If all of us work to remove one brick each we can make so much progress.

All without a single word.

If you like the weird experimental gritty hopeful post-rock sound, you should give it a listen.

[quotesfrommyreading]

In 1955, Shimomura joined the lab of Yoshimasa Hirata at Nagoya University, where he was tasked with extracting the organic compound luciferin from ostracods and determining its precise molecular structure. Today, scientists know that in many bioluminescent organisms, an enzyme named luciferase catalyzes a chemical reaction between luciferin and oxygen, which produces light. But back then, “we didn’t fully understand how it happened,” Shimomura says. “It was a mystery.” After 10 months of labor in the lab, Shimomura became the first person to crystallize luciferin, an essential step in studying its structure.

In the 1960s, he continued his research at Princeton University, where he also started to investigate the luminous jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Shimomura and his colleagues collected numerous A. victoria specimens and strained them like cider apples to obtain a small amount of pure glowing “squeezate.” Within the shining liquid they discovered a protein they named aequorin, which releases blue light when it reacts with calcium, even in the absence of oxygen. Another protein in the jellyfish, green fluorescent protein (GFP), sometimes absorbs that blue light, and releases green light in response.

By 1978, after collecting nearly a million jellyfish, Shimomura had thoroughly elucidated the structure of aequorin and the nature of A. victoria’s unique light-generating reactions. Both aequorin and GFP—as well as the gene coding for the latter—became indispensable tools in biology and medicine. Scientists could now tag and observe the intricate dances of previously invisible genes and proteins in living cells. In 2008, along with Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, Shimomura received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on GFP.

 —   The Secret History of Bioluminescence

[zombiesandbells]

I finished this at 6am cause I started late and the entry was due at 7am. I had a month to do this.

The planning:

Came in to my head at 2am when I already put my phone down

[bred-crumbs]

Explaining to my partner why humans can’t/didnt gain bioluminescence, he’s pissed

[fagdykefrank]

real life photo of you as a newborn in the little flower blossom you emerged from

POV you are watching the miracle of life

[glpbio]

D-Luciferin: Illuminating the World of Bioluminescence and Its Versatile Applications | GlpBio

D-Luciferin is a chemical molecule that is utilised in bioluminescence, which is the process by which living organisms produce light. It is found in a variety of organisms, including fireflies, glowworms, and several mushroom species.

When D-Luciferin is oxidised, light is produced as a byproduct. This is known as luciferase-mediated bioluminescence. D-Luciferin produces light that is commonly green or yellow in colour, though this can vary depending on the organism and environment.

The power of D-luciferin in biomedical research is undeniable, as its remarkable ability to emit light enables scientists to study biological processes and visualize molecular interactions with extraordinary sensitivity and precision.

D-Luciferin has a wide range of applications in science and other sectors. In biomedical research, for example, it is frequently employed as a marker to visualise the distribution and mobility of cells or other biological substances in living organisms. It's also utilised in environmental monitoring to detect the presence of specific chemicals or biological pollutants.

Overall, D-Luciferin is a significant chemical molecule that plays a vital role in the bioluminescence process and has numerous practical uses in a range of sectors.

For more details, please click here: https://www.glpbio.com/d-luciferin.html

[starswallowingsea]

I think the funniest way I could win this tournament is by doing nothing. Besides the gay shadow discord I didnt form any alliances and I've just been posting impact font memes and some silly fun facts about myself as propaganda

[scootsoot]

My three children that mean the world to me :33

Each of them have a small drawing of their favorite pokemon on the side

Anyways i accidentally made all the representatives of the longshot marching band Transgender in some way