Firefly brightness holds a cautionary tale about accepting older measurements

Article excerpt

For over a century, the accepted value for a firefly's brightness has mostly stood, tracing its origins to experiments carried out in 1912. Through rigorous new analysis published in the American Journal of Physics, David Silver of Remiza AI in New York has discovered that this value has likely been vastly overestimated. His results provide a stark reminder of what can happen when widely accepted older measurements are converted into modern standard units.