Sea Fireflies

Cypridina hilgendorfii - bioluminescing ostracod crustacean native to the sea of Japan.

To get light, simply grind 7-10 dried C. hilgendorfii into a powder. Place the powder onto a watch glass. Add enough water from a wash bottle to moisten it. Observe in a darkened room. The light will glow a blue colour for a brief period, dim and disappear.




This is the glow we got from today's tutorial session. It generated ooohs and aaahss...

...today we learnt the transformation of chemical energy (luciferin) into light by the enzyme luciferase.