luco-, luc-, luci-, lux, -lucence, -lucent

Where light has arisen there liberty should be sustained.

Motto of Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, USA and Community College of Beaver County, Monaca, Pennsylvania, USA.

In the year of light, computed by adding 4 000 years to A.D. [anno Domini].

Used by Freemasonary.

1. Being before light; a word applied to assemblies of Christians, in ancient times of persecution.
2. Held or done before light in the morning: "The couple went for an antelucan walk today."

To work by candle-light before day light: "Before electricity came into use, some people antelucidated prior to the rising of the sun."

1. Luminescence of a material; such as, a radioactive substance, resulting from energy originating within the material itself.
2. A glow or emission of light that comes from energy within a material; such as, that which is generated by radioactive materials.

1. The emission of light by living organisms; also, the light so produced.
2. Creatures that emit bioluminescent light include: fireflies, glowworms, certain fish, jelly fish, planktons, fungi, and bacteria.

Such light occurs when a pigment (usually luciferin) is oxidized without giving off heat. Although it is believed that bioluminescence is involved in animal communication, its function in many organisms has yet to be understood.

Bioluminescence is a form of chemiluminescence and most luminescent animals have a light-producing organ (photophore).

This may contain their own specialized light-producing cells, or house symbiotic luminescent bacteria.

The darkness of the ocean presents a variety of bioluminescent creatures

The most expansive animal habitat on the earth lies between the sea surface and the floor of the deep ocean basins. Within this enormous space live the largest and perhaps most remarkable biological communities of fauna.

Most creatures of this twilight world are able to augment the scant sunlight reaching them with another form of natural illumination known as bioluminescence.

Although bioluminescence is a relatively rare phenomenon in terrestrial ecosystems, the vast majority of the animals that inhabit the upper kilometer of the ocean are capable of producing light with photophores in one way or another.

The illustrated bioluminescent fish for this page is similar to a "flashlight fish" which has headlights made up of sacs of luminescent bacteria under its eyes that light its way around the ocean depths.

Before man caught up with nature, she developed her own uses for bioluminescence; for example, many predators use their natural lighting to catch their meals; as shown in the image.

1. Related to living organisms that emit light: "Fireflies are bioluminescent creatures."
2. A reference to the production of light by living organisms as a result of the oxidation of a light-producing substance (luciferin) by the enzyme luciferase and occurs in many marine organisms and insects; such as, the firefly, etc.

1. A descriptive term for the emission of light, with a possible afterglow, from a material when it is irradiated by an electron beam; such as, that which occurs in the phosphor of a cathode-ray tube.
2.A reference to light that is emitted by a substance undergoing bombardment by cathode-ray beams.

A cathode-ray is a negatively charged electrode that is the source of electrons entering an electrical device.

A luminescence, or emission of light, resulting from the bombardment of a substance with an electron (cathode-ray) beam.

The principal applications of cathodoluminescence are in television, computer, radar, and oscilloscope displays.

A method used to label DNA.

Two different DNA probes emit light when brought together in the same region of a gene.

1. Emission of light accompanying a chemical reaction, as in the oxidation of phosphorus.
2. In physical chemistry, any process in which a chemical reaction produces visible light without a corresponding increase in temperature; for example, bioluminescence; such as the light generated by fireflies, is a form of chemiluminescence.

A reference to, or descriptive terms for, the emission of light resulting from chemical reactions.

Bright on every side: "The circumlucid worm was easily visible at night."

The Lord is my light.

Motto of Oxford University, Oxford, UK. This motto is also translated as, "The Lord, my illumination."

1. The emission of light by a phosphor or semiconductor that is excited by an electromagnetic field or from a high-frequency electric discharge.
2. The generation of light by applying electricity to a material; such as, a semiconductor or phosphor, a substance that can exhibit the phenomenon of fluorescence or phosphorescence.
3. The conversion of electrical energy into light energy which is produced without heat by passing an alternating current through a phosphorescent substance.
4. The non-thermal conversion of electrical energy into light in a liquid or solid substance.

The photon emission resulting from electron-hole recombination in a PN (positive, negative) junction is one example. This is the mechanism employed by the injection laser.