In the area of food quality control scientists are developing methods for assessing bacterial contamination in raw milk, milk products, meat, juices, and other food products at risk of spoiling due to bacterial contamination. This could help prevent large outbreaks of disease and sickness usually brought upon by contaminated food products. All these tests are very easy to perform and require only a minimal amount of time- time that saves lives by preventing contamination on a massive scale. Another use for bioluminescent reactions is related to the chemistry involved in producing light. Glowsticks and lanterns that use a chemiluminescent reaction provide safety lights for miners, children at night, and anyone wishing to have light in places where batteries or electricity is not possible, such as a cave or deep within the ocean.
Chemiluminescence refers to the production of light through a chemical reaction.
It is the underlying mechanism for bioluminescent reactions for it defines the amount, color, and duration of light produced. It will probably be a very long time before bioluminescence is used as a replacement for the electric light bulb or even solar energy. Bioluminescent systems are too cost prohibitive and give off light at many orders of magnitude less than even a one hundred watt light bulb at the present time. Studying and understanding bioluminescence from a chemical and mathematical point of view is very difficult and requires sophisticated knowledge of physical chemistry, quantum chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, biochemistry, and at differential equations. 9 LoLAR or low light autoradiometer measures light between 480nm and 380nm at an astounding five orders of magnitude over most instruments in use today.