![eel](http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/527/62/62527/1371168781-0.jpg)
Your
hovercraft may not be full of them, but there's a good chance that you've already eaten one:
The Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica,
a freshwater species, is known as unagi in Japan, where it's an
extremely common ingredient in the cuisine. It's grilled, served in
sushi, and given many more preparations. The chemists, who primarily
study food, were investigating how light interacts with the oily flesh
of the eel, and noticed something odd: when hit with a blue light, the
eel positively glows.
In a paper in the current issue of Nature the
researchers describe how they isolated and identified the specific
protein responsible for the fluorescence. After examining it, they
noticed that it's very different from the proteins that cause
fluorescence in other lifeforms. It shines brightly even with low oxygen
levels, for one thing, and it also requires a substance called
bilirubin, which is found in bile.
No comments:
Post a Comment