When light is mentioned, people think of heat, because light and heat complement each other. However, biological light only emits light and does not produce heat, so it is called "cold light". What creatures are cold light on Earth? What mysteries are hidden by the cold light of living things?
Bio Cold Light, also known as "Safety Light", is almost everyone in the Algerian fishing village near the Mediterranean Sea
Each has a "mirror" for dressing up. This "mirror" has a finely patterned curved handle, and there is a set of patterns on the back, and the mirror surface is crystalline and shining, which can clearly reflect the human face. But when you look closely, you will find that this is not an ordinary mirror, but a hard dried fish. The curved handle is a fish tail, the pattern on the back is fish scales, and the sparkling mirror surface is a fish belly. Therefore, the locals call this fish mirror fish.
The meat of mirror fish is very tender, but you can't eat fresh fish. Because when you put fresh fish in a pot and cook it, it will immediately turn into fish soup. Only by marinating it into salted fish can the fish be coagulated and made into a delicacy.
Mirror fish are not very large, weighing about 500 grams each, and their flesh is fat
Thick and plump. Its body is almost rounded. The belly side of the fish body is silver and bright, and its inherent cold light effect has the role of lenses, mirrors and mirrors, and can radiate brilliant pearl brilliance. The "brilliance" emitted by this mirror fish is what we usually call biological cold light.
The wavelength of biological cold light is generally 450 to 700 nanometers, and its color is blue-green light compared with incandescent light, but also yellow light, orange light and red light. Because the biological cold light itself has no heat, so there is no risk of sparks, in the oil depot, explosive depot, mine and other flammable and explosive places, the use of it as a light source is the most ideal, so it is called "safety light".
If seawater rich in luminescent microorganisms is loaded into a glass bulb, a simple cold light or bacterial lamp is made. As early as 1935, when an international conference was held at the Marine Academy in Paris, this cold light was installed in its conference hall.
The application range of cold light is very wide, it can be used for lighting, but also in aviation, navigation, fishing and camping, such as the failure of the aircraft lighting system, cold light can be used as a call signal light, so that the aircraft is rescued, turn the crisis into safety.
All kinds of creatures cool down on summer nights, walking on country roads, you are surrounded by bright lights. Fireflies flicker, flying up and down, shining little insects emit a faint light from the grass they inhabit, and just under your feet, there will be clusters of mushrooms
Green light. These lights are emitted by various creatures. As everyone knows, there are about 1500 kinds of fireflies, and the luminous colors are yellow-green and orange, and the brightness is also different. The light emitted by fireflies is not only highly luminously efficient, but also has a soft light, which is very suitable for the human eye.
In addition to the well-known fireflies, protozoa, coelenterates, mollusks, arthropods, anthocysts and fish, etc., have luminous species, about 4000 to 5000 biological groups. Among these luminous organisms, terrestrial species are found in a few invertebrates such as fireflies, centipedes, millipedes, and earthworms.
Some plants also emit light, such as glowing trees, glowing grasses, and glowing flowers. In the Kiel Forest of Africa, there is an apricot-yellow firefly with feathers on its head and wings, and the rest of it is a shiny hard shell, but covered with a layer of glowing cells. Locals keep this little bird in cages and use it as a lantern light at night.
The ocean is full of glowing objects: clams, squid, sponges, bacteria all sparkle in the dark, they are as many as 1100 species, of which there are more than 240 kinds of glowing fish, most of them inhabit the deep sea, a few inhabit the shallow sea, mainly distributed in the 200 to 1000 meters deep shimmer belt.
What is the significance of fish glowing biological secret fish glowing? First, fish can rely on luminescence
To illuminate and forage, it is also possible to identify the same kind by emitting light. This pair gathers
Flocking, seeking mates, and reproducing offspring have special significance. In addition, the glow of fish can not only be used to conceal themselves, but also as a means of defense, using the flickering light of the illuminator to blur the other party's vision when encountering the enemy, so as to take the opportunity to escape.
The hidden light fish can be regarded as a typical luminous fish. Under its eyes are a pair of light emitters that can be "switched on and off" at will, and the light emitted can shoot out of the water 15 meters away, so that someone can catch it in the deep sea late at night without lighting. Another example is the axefish with a body as thin as a blade, although it is not more than 5 centimeters long, but the luminous objects are almost all over the body, and when it glows, the light can outline the entire fish.
The luminous phenomenon of fish is due to the fact that they have special light emitters. The distribution of the illuminator on the fish body varies depending on the species: some are located on the top of the head (such as the lamp fish), some are located under the eyes (such as the lamp perch), and some are located on the mouth (such as the pine ball fish).
, some grow on the abdomen (such as axefish)
, and there are also ones from beginning to end (such as the winged seven-star fish).
Some fish have glandular luminescent devices on their heads and shoulders, and when they encounter enemies and run away, they can emit light mist to confuse the enemy. There is a shrimp that lives in the deep sea and can also release a glowing liquid when escaping, confusing the enemy.
Different types of fish emit different colors of light, and different emitters on the fish body will also emit different colors of light. Fish have many luminous organs, even very small fish, and its body surface will have thousands of tiny luminous bodies.
However, no matter what kind of luminous organ, oxygen is inseparable from the luminescence. When the oxygen supply stops, the light goes out. This is somewhat similar to artificial replication of chemical light: as long as the chemical light comes into contact with air or oxygen, it is activated and emits light, and it is packed in a closed container, isolating the oxygen in the air, and the light is immediately extinguished.
The luminescence of fish can be divided into two types: ontological luminescence and symbiotic bacterial luminescence. Most fish emit light on their own, called body luminescence. However, some sturgeons do not have luminous cells in their emitters, but they can also emit light. It turned out to be luminous bacteria to help.
The lumen of these fish luminescent devices live with luminous bacteria that rely on fish for nutrients, which use luminous substances produced by bacteria to emit light. For example, under the eye of a lamp perch has a sac-like luminous organ filled with luminous bacteria, and the intensity of the light is regulated by the eyelids.
The most superb use of symbiotic bacteria to emit light is probably the anglerfish. Anglerfish emit light in a variety of colors, such as yellow, yellow-green, blue-green, orange-yellow, etc. This is because it carries phosphorus-emitting bacteria on its body and even in its mouth, and when these bacteria come into contact with oxygen from blood vessels, they react and emit a bright light.