You sure have been mesmerized by one of summer’s most magical sights is an otherwise ordinary field or backyard illuminated by tiny, pulsing points of living light, as fireflies emerge at dusk. A recent invention, a handheld gadget called the Firefly Communicator will now allow people to take part in fireflies’ light-coded “conversations.”
With the device, which resembles the insect it was built to mimic, users can communicate with fireflies by pushing a single button to emit stored patterns of light pulses that copy actual firefly signals, issuing a “come hither” message that attracts fireflies and lets users observe them up close.
Fireflies send their coded messages using a chemical process called bioluminescence, where the insect controls its own “light switch,” triggering when the light goes on and off by regulating the amount of oxygen introduced into its light organ.