On one level, we have fireflies figured out. We know the enzyme they use to make light (called luciferase), as well as the chemicals they use in the light-generating reaction. We know them so well ...

Researchers have engineered Arabidopsis plants that emit visible light when their immune defenses switch on, creating a living sensor that tracks how plants fight pathogens in real time. The work, ...

Enzymes, nature's remarkable biocatalysts, play an integral role in various aspects of daily life. Consider the awe-inspiring sight of fireflies lighting up a summer night. Their captivating glow ...

For more than a century, fireflies have been treated as biology’s most dependable natural light source. Each species was thought to emit peak light of the same intensity, an optical fingerprint ...

Unlike the enchanting yellow-green flashes of light produced on warm summer evenings by Photinus pyralis, the most common firefly species in North America, the orange lights of Photinus scintillans ...

In a recent study published in ACS Central Science, researchers used a luciferase-independent luminescence test to investigate whether the wild-type severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ...

A newly developed luciferase-based reporter can detect problems in protein translocation and disulfide bond formation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Inspired by natural mechanisms found in ...

A new study looks at the development of a firefly's light-emitting organs. Neat, thanks for sharing. Coincidentally, on my other computer screen I'm working with the DNA sequence of firefly luciferase ...