| Title | Let There Be Bioluminescence |
|---|---|
| Contributor | David H. Silver(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0526.25 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0526/chapters/10.11647/obp.0526.25 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | David H. Silver |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2026-04-08 |
| Long abstract | Firefly flashes demonstrate biology’s hierarchical organization from ecosystems to quantum mechanics. Species-specific flash patterns enable mate recognition and, in tropical swarms, synchronous displays visible across forests. Neural circuits generate these patterns by controlling oxygen flow through tracheal valves to specialized photocytes. Within these cells, luciferase catalyzes luciferin oxidation with extreme efficiency, converting chemical energy to light with minimal heat. The photons themselves arise when excited electrons in oxyluciferin transition between quantum energy states, emitting at 560-590 nm. |
| Print length | 10 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
| THEMA |
|
| BISAC |
|
| Keywords |
|
| Landing Page | Full text URL | Platform | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0526/chapters/10.11647/obp.0526.25 | Landing page | https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0526.25.pdf | Full text URL |
David H. Silver is an industrial researcher whose career bridges computer vision, computational biology, and science communication. He studied mathematics, computer science, and biology at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology as a Rothschild Scholar, and was awarded a Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship for his doctoral work in computational biology at Cambridge, UK. Silver’s peer-reviewed publications span multiple domains: computational biology in Nature and PNAS; computer vision systems in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence; medical AI in Human Reproduction and MIDL; and entertainment analysis in PLoS One. He holds over a dozen patents in depth sensing, medical imaging, and generative AI. His industry positions include Algorithm Engineer at Intel Corporation, ML Researcher at Apple, and CTO/co-founder roles at several technology startups. Silver maintains academic collaborations with researchers worldwide and serves as a peer reviewer for Image and Vision Computing and PNAS.