Did You Know...How do fireflies glow?
As a child I've always thought fireflies were magical creatures. And that is due to the lower part of their abdomen. The magic has a name: bioluminescence , the light produced by a small cells called photocytes, reflected off several layers of reflective cells, with a consequent emission of a greenish-yellow glow. Inside this light producing cells within the firefly is an organelle called a peroxizome . The chemical part within it is what creates the light. Magnesium and ATP (so it's called energy in biology) combine with an enzyme known as luciferase and the protein luciferin . This combination creates a very excited molecule. When oxygen is introduced into the mix, the molecule goes from excitement back to a steady state. This transaction releases energy in the form of a photon of light . The mechanism that starts this light show is not very well known. The main theory revolves around the firefly’s ability to control oxygen within photocytes. The organelle that cont...