scotophobin

[ skoh-tuh-foh-bin ]

noun

1. 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.

Other Words From

• sco·to·pho·bic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of scotophobin¹

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

Example Sentences

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