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  • BBC Science Focus Magazine

    TIME TO SHINE

    May 05, 2021 4 minutes
    WORDS: JULES HOWARD

    DEVIL MAKES LIGHT WORK

    “It was pretty shocking when we saw it,” Jacob Schoen, a technician at an Ohio zoo told local reporters in December 2020, just before the global media circus descended. The source of this storm? This image, clearly showing that the Tasmanian devils housed in their enclosure were fluorescing after-hours – parts of their faces were, quite literally, glowing in the dark. Certain Australian mammals, including Tasmanian devils, are thought to manage this via arrangements of special proteins in the skin and fur that absorb energy from sunlight during the day. At dusk, they re-emit this energy in a different wavelength – one invisible to humans without the use of blacklights or ultraviolet (UV) torches, which translate

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