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A Green Fluorescent Nobel Prize

Posted on October 08, 2008

So it was green fluorescent protein after all! We can argue about whether this was a pure chemistry prize or another quasi-biology one, but either way, the award is a strong one. So, what is the stuff and what s it do?Osamu Shimomura discovered the actual protein back in 1962, isolating it from the jellyfish Aequoria victoria. These were known to be luminescent creatures, but when the light-emitting protein was found (named aequorin), it turned out to give off blue light. That was strange, since the jellyfish were known for their green color. Shimomura then isolated another protein from the ...

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