What is the simplest way to explain the difference between the two?
In: Biology
In physics terms, fluorescence is when a material absorbs light of a certain wavelength and then emits light at a different (almost always longer) wavelength.
We notice this the most when the emitted light is visible to the human eye but the absorbed light isn’t. E.g. you shine an ultraviolet lamp (a “blacklight”) on a white cotton t-shirt and it appears to glow.
Biofluorescence is just that when it happens in a living organism, e.g. scorpions fluoresce under UV light. You yourself are biofluorescent, or rather your teeth are.
Bioluminescence, on the other hand, is the actual production of light itself by a biological reaction. It’s not the same as fluorescence because it’s not necessary to absorb light to make it happen.
Believe it or not, humans and indeed all living organisms are bioluminescent, but in almost all species the light is too faint to see with human eyes.
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