Siberian Federal University

Issue

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Biology. 2008 1 (3)

Authors

Lee, John

Contact information

John Lee: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602 USA;

Keywords

Pliny; Boyle; phosphor; firefly; glowworm; oxygen

Abstract

Bioluminescence is defined as the emission of light from a living organism that performs some biological function. Bioluminescence is one of the oldest fields of scientific study, dating from the first written records of the ancient Greeks. This article describes the many investigations of animal luminescence up to the end of the 19th Century. Many facets of this field are easily accessible for investigation without need for advanced technology and so, within the History of Science, investigations of bioluminescence played a significant role in the establishment of the scientific method, and also were among the many visual phenomena to be accounted for in developing a theory of light.

Pages

194-205

Paper at repository of SibFU

https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/935

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).