Fireflies throw new light on cancer

For more than a century, fireflies have been treated as biology’s most dependable natural light source. Each species was thought to emit peak light of the same intensity, an optical fingerprint determined by the structure of an enzyme called luciferase. That assumption has shaped bioluminescence imaging (BLI), an imaging tool used to track tumours in cancer research.
Researchers at Gauhati University found insects within the same species of the Indian firefly Asymmetricata circumdata do not emit identical light; their emission peaks vary measurably. The earlier theory, turns out, could have led to misreading tumour sizes and response to treatment in pre-clinical research, thereby affecting drug development too.