The Secret, Flamboyant World of Fluorescent Fish

Well-camouflaged, neutral-colored fish may appear drab to the naked eye, but many actually live secret lives cloaked in flamboyantly bright colors visible only to other fish, new research suggests.

Lots of marine animals — including certain fish, jellies and plankton — glow colors that are visible to the human eye through a chemical process called bioluminescence. Animals also produce bright colors that are not visible to the human eye, through a process called biofluorescence, in which electrons within certain proteins absorb light at one wavelength and then re-emit it at a lower-energy wavelength. With special filters, humans can see this fluorescence appear as bright red, green or orange light Read more...