Morning reading: Optical Brightening Agent

Adam is reading Mary Roach’s Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law and had to share this.

Laundry detergents that claim to give you "whiter whites and brighter brights" provide a service to deer. The manufacturers of these soaps have added an optical brightening agent that emits in the ultraviolet range. To us, it adds no detectable color. To a deer, the clothes are, Cohen says, "luminous." Joke's on you, hunter who washed his camo pants in Cheer.