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Bioluminescence is a term describing the emission of light originating from living cells, that occurs in the spectrum of visible light between 200 to 800 nm. Research indicates that bioluminescence has a whole variety of practical applications, such as measuring food quality or the impact of toxic substances on the health of natural habitats. Bioluminescence might also address the very essential question of life.
Bioluminescence is a term describing the emission of light originating from living cells, that occurs in the spectrum of visible light between 200 to 800 nm.
Research indicates that bioluminescence has a whole variety of practical applications, such as measuring food quality or the impact of toxic substances on the health of natural habitats. Bioluminescence might also address the very essential question of life.
It is commonly known that some animals such as certain species of algae, insects such as fireflies or deep-sea plankton emit radiation in the spectrum of visible light. Less well known, however, is the fact that all living cells, be it animal, plant of fungi, do radiate light.This phenomenon was first described by the controversial physicist and biologist Fritz-Albert Popp in 1975. According to his ground-breaking research, every living cell radiates a faint light in the spectrum between 200 and 800 nanometers.
This light is far too weak to be registered by the eye, and needs to be amplified before it can be measured. According to Popp’s analysis, bio-photons are stimulated by sunlight-induced electrons. As light emissions follow a decline curve, it is suggested that the bio-photon emission represent a decline from a stimulated to a non-stimulated electro-magnetic field. But there is more to it:•
- Microbes seem to communicate through coherent bioluminescence;•
- Emitted light being coherent (=laser-like) is suggesting a simultaneous and coordinated process;•
- The decline curve of bio-photonic light is faster in decaying cell substance (an old leaf, for instance, compared to a freshly plugged leaf);•
- Biological food is delivering better values than food originating from agro-chemical production;•
- Bioluminescence is seen to disappear when food is being digested, or when plants rot.
The above points are obviously of great interest to the food-producing and pharmaceutical industries.There are, however, a number of other surprising emerging applications:•
- Given the fact that all living cells emit light, one can make use of bioluminescence to track and measure the amounts of biological (microbial) contamination in pharmaceutical ‘clean’ rooms;•
- Research has shown that certain insecticides, such as the chemical pentachlorophenol, inhibit bioluminescence in the algae Chlorinella vulgaris, and also its growth.
Beyond these highly interesting practical applications, bioluminescence also addresses essential questions about the nature of life - a field most modern scientists tend to feel uncomfortable with.
It is easier to find articles that offer speculations about the first five minutes after the cosmic “Big Bang,” than a proper physical explanation of what “fire” actually is.
Clearly, bioluminescence stretches our understanding of nature and brings up uneasy questions, such as:•
- Could it be, that our true nature consists of information, and that we are actually feeding on information?•
- If this were to be so, it would mean that every living cell (its source code?) is pure consciousness.
Clearly, the above questions do challenge common views about our world. Paradigms are like ugly monsters, hostile to any fundamental change, Galileo had to learn… Did things change for the better? Probably not!
© 2005 by Franz L Kessler
Sources used:
Jos, A et al 2005: Ecotoxicological evaluation of pentachlorophenol using alternative tests. Aquatic Ecosystems Health and Management Society.
Der Spiegel/ Holger Fuss: Das raetselhafte Leuchten allen Lebens.
BBC: Small Talk in the Microbial world www.bbc.co.uk
Temprano GC, D’Aquino, M, 2003: What is the scope of bioluminescence in pharmaceutical clean room monitoring? Faculdad de farmacia y Biologia, Univ. de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Popp, Fritz-Albert, et al. 1994: Biophoton Emission: Experimental Background and Theoretical Approaches. Modern physics letters B, Vol 8.
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spontaneous ultraweak photon emission (SUPE) should be observable in recently fertilized cells. Prior to mitoses SUPE stops then restarts after cell division, in both cells, repeating this process until...(the embryonic state)?
The subject tweaked my interest becuse I think it is a concept that young people would find VERY interesting ... and could be another way to attract them to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ... which is an area I explore (attracting young people to these fields--the STEM fields in the jargon of the funding agencies here in the US) now that I am retired.
Cheers,
Gus
Hilding "Gus" Lindquist
Best regards,
Leland