Ongoing discussion for students in Chemistry III

Please abide by the following when posting to this blog:
1) no profanity & no attacking another's perspectives
2) for each claim or idea that you put forth, justify your idea with at least two SOLID pieces of evidence & coherent reasoning (more evidence presents a stronger argument)
3) feel free to disagree and/or agree with each other, however know that you need to justify why you feel or think the way you do
4) any questionable content will not be posted
5) feel free to add topic-specific or claim-specific links, URLs, and images in your posts

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Bioluminescent Bugs

Glowing insects and other organisms use luminescence to produce light. The glow is created from chemical compounds that neither require nor generate a large amount of heat. This is why the light that is produced is often referred to as, cold light. Bioluminescence itself it a form of cold light emission, meaning that less that 20% of the light, created by the bug, produces thermal radiation. It is for this reason that bugs do not combust. In order for a bug to combust it would have to reach an incredibly high temperature which is very unlikely because at the same time it is heating up, the bug is expending a large amount of energy to produce cold light. This effectively keeps the bug from reaching temperatures anywhere near combustion. The fact that this particular bug is hot enough to possibly burn skin, gives the indication that it is a pretty inefficient bug. Even though it is inefficient and reaches higher temperatures than most though, the bug would still be unlikely to reach a hot enough temperature to combust because it is constantly producing cold light to balance itself out to a certain extent.

"How Bioluminescence Work" How Stuff Works. Web. 30 Oct. 2011
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/zoology/all-about-animals/bioluminescence.htm

"Bioluminescence" Wikipedia.org. Web. 30 Oct. 2011
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence

No comments: