1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:10,879 Speaker 1: Lauren vogel bomb here with a classic episode of the podcast. 3 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 1: This one is about the wonderfully strange phenomenon of scorpions 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 1: glowing green under black lights. Not velvet paintings of scorpions, 5 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: actual scorpions, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vocal bomb here. Some 6 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:30,520 Speaker 1: animals are just over the top. Take scorpions. Is it 7 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:33,839 Speaker 1: not enough that these stinging arachnids can survive some of 8 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: the harshest climates in the world and live twenty five 9 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: times longer than your average cockroach? Or that some species 10 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: don't need males to reproduce and can live up to 11 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,279 Speaker 1: forty eight hours without oxygen, and that all of them 12 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:51,159 Speaker 1: will eat almost anything they can subdue, even other scorpions. No, 13 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:55,960 Speaker 1: it's apparently not enough, because scorpions also glow electric cyam 14 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: green under ultraviolet light. Why they do this is a 15 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: bit of a mystery, but it makes them pretty easy 16 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: to study. All a scorpion researcher has to do to 17 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: find scorpions is go out into the desert at night 18 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: with a black light and watch those suckers light up 19 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: like Christmas trees. Chemically speaking, Nobody. 20 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,560 Speaker 2: Is exactly sure what causes scorpions to glow, but we 21 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 2: know its powerful stuff. When a scorpion is preserved in alcohol, 22 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 2: the alcohol itself will fluoresce. Scorpion fossils have even been 23 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 2: induced to glow under black light after hundreds of millions 24 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 2: of years. What we do know is the chemicals that 25 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 2: make a scorpion so rave ready are in the outer layer, 26 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 2: or cuticle, of its exoskeleton. Scientists call it the highland layer. 27 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:42,959 Speaker 2: Scorpions molt their exoskeleton every so often in order to grow, 28 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 2: and researchers have observed that until the slightly mushy outer 29 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 2: shell has entirely hardened, the highlind layer does not fluoresce 30 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 2: under UV light. This is all pretty weird. Why would 31 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 2: an animal evolve to glow under ultraviolet light? Researchers have 32 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 2: posited a bunch of different ideas. Scorpion fluorescents might help 33 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 2: them find each other in the dark, protect them from sunlight, 34 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 2: or even confuse their prey. But there's another promising theory 35 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,799 Speaker 2: that scorpions are somehow using their fluorescence to detect UV light, 36 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 2: mostly because they want to avoid it. They're night hunters, 37 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:20,960 Speaker 2: after all, and a scorpion will always find the darkest 38 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 2: place to hang out during the day or even in 39 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,960 Speaker 2: the moonlight. A study published in the Journal of Arachnology 40 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 2: in twenty ten tested normal fluorescing scorpions and a group 41 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 2: of scorpions that they had reduced the fluorescence of with 42 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 2: prolonged exposure to UV light. The normal scorpions then reacted 43 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 2: more strongly and negatively to UV light than the desensitized scorpions. 44 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,040 Speaker 2: But wait, you might be thinking. Scorpions still have eyes, 45 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 2: and as it turns out, they can visually see light 46 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 2: within the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, but it doesn't 47 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:58,519 Speaker 2: seem like the scorpions were reacting visually. A separate study 48 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,679 Speaker 2: published in Animal Behavior in twenty twelve basically blindfolded a 49 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 2: group of scorpions and found that the critters still reacted 50 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 2: to the presence of ultraviolet light. So it seems that 51 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 2: they're using their entire bodies as giant UV seeking eyeballs, 52 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 2: and that if they sense that they're glowing at all, 53 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 2: it's time to scurry off somewhere darker. Today's episode is 54 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:28,639 Speaker 2: based on the article why scorpions glow under black Life 55 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 2: on how stuffworks dot com. Written by Jesslinshields. Brain Stuff 56 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 2: is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com. 57 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: And is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my 58 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 59 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.