Lightening Bugs!

It's early in January and we've already had 3 rounds of snow this winter ... very unusual. It's got me thinking of warm summer nights.

I have fond memories of fireflies. Any summer evening in northwest Arkansas the early dark was filled with tiny spots of light ... lightening bugs! We would chase those bits of light ... and put the bugs in a jar to watch them. We'd usually leave them in the jar overnight. They were pretty unimpressive in the morning light, so we'd let them go.


When I was taking Organic Chemistry at OU, one of the labs we had to complete involved synthesizing the chemicals necessary to replicate the lightening bug lights. It took 2 weeks worth of 3 hour lab class to get a few seconds of light. Made me truly appreciate the complexity of life on this planet!