Copying the Firefly​—“No Easy Task”

The humble firefly produces “cold light” through a very efficient process of oxidation. Two scientists in the Netherlands have successfully developed a chemical compound that produces light in a similar way after it is dissolved in a liquid.

This compound may work fine as emergency lighting when applied as “light stick,” states Kuzien, the quarterly magazine of the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The new chemical compound is stored in a glass tube that is packed in a plastic container filled with water and an organic solvent. When the glass tube is broken, a chemical reaction takes place between the compound and the oxygen in the water, and​—there is light. However, the magazine modestly acknowledges: “Despite the good step forward, it remains a challenge for the chemists to make their system every bit as efficient as that of the humble firefly. There is every indication that this is no easy task.”