Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some bioluminescent bacteria, and terrestrial arthropods such as fireflies. In some animals, the light is bacteriogenic, produced by symbiotic bacteria such as those from the genus Vibrio; in others, it is autogenic, produced by the animals themselves.
Flying and glowing firefly, Photinus pyralis
Female glowworm, Lampyris noctiluca
Osamu Shimomura isolated the photoprotein aequorin and its cofactor coelenterazine from the crystal jelly Aequorea victoria in 1961.
Mycena chlorophos, a bioluminescent mushroom
A safety lamp is any of several types of lamp that provides illumination in places such as coal mines where the air may carry coal dust or a build-up of inflammable gases, which may explode if ignited, possibly by an electric spark. Until the development of effective electric lamps in the early 1900s, miners used flame lamps to provide illumination. Open flame lamps could ignite flammable gases which collected in mines, causing explosions; safety lamps were developed to enclose the flame to prevent it from igniting the explosive gases. Flame safety lamps have been replaced for lighting in mining with sealed explosion-proof electric lights, but continue to be used to detect gases.
Spedding mill at the German mining museum, Bochum, Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany
Early form of Stephenson lamp shown with a Davy lamp on the left
Mueseler lamp (on the left) and a derivative of the Geordie
Marsaut lamp (on the right) showing a triple mesh variant