Glow in the dark chickens' eggs catch conman
Today we've been going behind the scenes on the story of the Bromsgrove conman who passed off eggs from battery chickens as free-range or organic.
He's now in prison and will have to pay back £3m in profits from the illegal scheme. There's more .
It was the Government's "egg inspectors" who cracked (sorry) the scam. Using ultra-violet light to show up tell tale marks left on the eggs just after they were laid. Turns out eggs fluoresce in uv and that also reveals the marks left on the wet cuticle of a just laid egg. Once the cuticle dries the marks are preserved, hidden to the naked eye but visible to uv.
The trained eye can spot the marks left on the egg by the bottom of wire battery cages or the hession conveyor belts used to transport the eggs. You should be able to see the two lines left by the wire cage on the egg in this picture.
This isn't the only time ultra-violet has exposed something interesting about birds eggs. According to this from the Royal Society it helps explain why birds don't recognise cuckoo eggs amongst their own. While cuckoo and robin eggs look very difference to the naked eye in the ultraviolet range they look very similar. Perhaps birds rely more on the ultra-violet for their visual cues than the visible?
I'm David Gregory, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Science Correspondent for the West Midlands. My first law states: "Science is the answer." There is no second law. Feel free to drop me a line: 
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