5 ms·

I heard this story on the radio today. They started off with references to fire flys and other creatures that generate light (I dunno the name for that phenomen

by foobar1962 3y ago

I heard this story on the radio today. They started off with references to fire flys and other creatures that generate light (I dunno the name for that phenomenon) the led into the main story that lots of mammal fur fluoresces under UV light. Not even close to being the same thing. Bad journalism.

flobosg 3y ago
> (I dunno the name for that phenomenon) Bioluminiscence.
dghughes 3y ago
>Bad journalism. That seems harsh. Couldn't it just be a fun general discussion of how light in nature among animals is observed?
- etrautmann 3y ago
  No - a TON of things naturally fluoresce when excited by external photons. The size range of proteins is great for that. Proteins that produce light through phosphorescence are a completely different thing and shouldn’t be hand waved into the same category. Some exception could be made for molecules like gfp, etc.
- zdragnar 3y ago
  Ever watch CSI? Lots of organic fluid will fluoresce under a strong UV / blacklight. Very, very different than bioluminescence. It is mildly interesting, but the comparison is really misleading.
RajT88 3y ago
You're confusing 2 terms: Fluorescence and Bio-Luminescence. The title as written is accurate; what's confusing is other articles sometimes conflate these two things, and so some people also mix the two terms up. Bananas fluoresce; squid bio-illuminate.
- resoluteteeth 3y ago
  The person you are responding to is specifically complaining that when the research in the article was discussed on a radio program, it confused fluorescence and bio-luminescence, so I'm not sure why you are explaining the difference to them. (I guess you think they are talking about the article but they explicitly said that they are talking about a story on the radio so I'm not sure where the confusion is coming from.)

5 ms·

I heard this story on the radio today. They started off with references to fire flys and other creatures that generate light (I dunno the name for that phenomen

by foobar1962 3y ago

flobosg 3y ago
> (I dunno the name for that phenomenon) Bioluminiscence.
dghughes 3y ago
>Bad journalism. That seems harsh. Couldn't it just be a fun general discussion of how light in nature among animals is observed?
- etrautmann 3y ago
  No - a TON of things naturally fluoresce when excited by external photons. The size range of proteins is great for that. Proteins that produce light through phosphorescence are a completely different thing and shouldn’t be hand waved into the same category. Some exception could be made for molecules like gfp, etc.
- zdragnar 3y ago
  Ever watch CSI? Lots of organic fluid will fluoresce under a strong UV / blacklight. Very, very different than bioluminescence. It is mildly interesting, but the comparison is really misleading.
RajT88 3y ago
You're confusing 2 terms: Fluorescence and Bio-Luminescence. The title as written is accurate; what's confusing is other articles sometimes conflate these two things, and so some people also mix the two terms up. Bananas fluoresce; squid bio-illuminate.
- resoluteteeth 3y ago
  The person you are responding to is specifically complaining that when the research in the article was discussed on a radio program, it confused fluorescence and bio-luminescence, so I'm not sure why you are explaining the difference to them. (I guess you think they are talking about the article but they explicitly said that they are talking about a story on the radio so I'm not sure where the confusion is coming from.)