Living beings shine easily with invisible light – and death makes it disappear

The most modern imaging technology has found that all living organisms spend an extremely weak light that is invisible to the naked eye with patterns that differ significantly between life and death. These Ultraweak photon emissions (UPE) offer researchers a promising instrument for non-invasive monitoring of biological processes and stress reactions in animals and plants.

What are Ultraweak photon emissions?

Researchers from the National Research Council of the University of Calgary and the Canada have developed sophisticated camera systems that can recognize these almost imperceptible light signals that are typically between 10-1000 photons per second per second.

“The phenomenon of the biological ultraweak photon emission was observed in all living systems examined,” says the researcher that the researchers published in ACS Photonics were published in ACS. Despite decades of studies, scientists are still working to understand exactly what triggers this weak shine.

In contrast to Bioluminescence, the dramatic light, which can be seen in fireflies or deep-sea ethers-is upright in all organisms, but is weaker for thousands of times. It also differs from the thermal radiation that emits all objects based on the temperature.

Life vs. death: conspicuous differences in the emission patterns

The research team uses specialized electron multi-charging care cameras (EMCCD) with remarkable sensitivity, with which individual photons can be recorded with an efficiency of over 95% in the visible light range.

Perhaps the most important was the dramatic difference in the emissions between living and recently deceased mice. After human euthanasia, the mice showed significantly reduced photon emissions compared to the time they lived – although they had maintained the same body temperature of 37 ° C.

“The results of the UPE imaging show that the live mice were consistently a significantly higher UPE intensity compared to their late colleagues,” the researchers reported. “This inequality illustrates a profound influence of the most important state of a system on UPE emissions.”

How could these results lead to practical applications in biomedicine? The detection of UPE could possibly activate:

• Non-invasive monitoring of metabolic activity
• Early detection of stress -related anomalies
• Real -time observation of physiological changes
• Improved understanding of cellular processes

Plant voltage reactions revealed by light emissions

The team also discovered that plants have different emission patterns under different forms of stress. When Arabidopsis Thaliana plants were exposed to higher temperatures, their light emissions increased noticeably. Interestingly, the temperatures fell when the temperatures were exceeded above 36 ° C – which indicates that extreme heat disturbs the cellular processes responsible for the light.

Bodily harm on plant leaves triggered increased emissions at the wound site. When researchers pointed out different chemical treatments on these injuries, they observed different intensities of light emissions. What surprised the researchers the most?

Unexpected findings with chemical treatments

Wounds treated with benzocaine – a frequent local anesthetic – showed the strongest emissions, even higher than the emissions treated with hydrogen peroxide, which is known to improve UPE. The mechanism behind this unexpected finding remains unclear, although the researchers speculate that it may be related to reactive oxygen species (Ros).

“The intensity of the UPE emission from the benzocaine was much higher than even that of hydrogen peroxide, a well-known enhancer from UPE,” the researchers observed.

Future applications and implications

The practical applications of this innovative research could be far -reaching. For plants, UPE imaging “a simple method for non-invasive monitoring of health abnormality and plant growth under various environmental conditions could deliver, which may benefit agricultural practices.

In medical contexts, these techniques could one day offer “non-invasive-free imaging of biochemical activities and metabolism in living systems”, according to the researchers.

This technology is in real time during the development of a promising approach to monitor biological processes without disturbing the systems examined. With progressive imaging technology, these ghostly emissions can shed light on aspects of life that are previously hidden from scientific observation.

It remains to be seen how this technology can change our understanding of the subtle energetic processes, distinguish the living systems from non -living matter, and how these findings can lead to transformative applications in both medicine and agriculture.

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