scotophobin

[skoh-tuh-foh-bin]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a peptide isolated from the brains of rats conditioned to avoid darkness, alleged to induce a dark-avoidance response in untrained rats, mice, and other animals.

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Other Word Forms

scotophobic adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of scotophobin¹

First recorded in 1965–70; scotophob(ia) ( def. ) + -in ² ( def. )

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

His name for it: scotophobin, from the Greek words for "darkness" and "fear."

From Time Magazine Archive

To check his conclusion, Ungar asked Wolfgang Parr, a University of Houston chemist, to duplicate scotophobin using only off-the-shelf chemicals.

From Time Magazine Archive

Finally, he narrowed the search to a single peptide�consisting of a sequence of 15 amino acids�that he named scotophobin, from the Greek words for dark and fear.

From Time Magazine Archive

scotophobia scotopia

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