Silk Worms Make Bookworms Glow

Softly glowing silk worms, created by Japanese researchers, could make the perfect gift for a bookworm friend.

Japanese researchers have created glowing silk worms as an outgrowth of their study into how genes work, a researcher on the team said Friday.

“I think the glow from the silk worms is bright enough to provide light to read letters in a book,” the researcher said.

The light has the same soft glow as that of a firefly.

Researchers rearranged the genes of a virus that commonly infects silk worms so that they carry the genes that give fireflies their luminescent glow and then infected the silk worms with these viruses.

But your gift will not last for long--the viruses usually kill the silk worms within a week.

The research is aimed at studying the production of vaccine in fireflies, the researcher said.