[HN Gopher] Bioluminescent wood using the white rot fungus desar...
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       Bioluminescent wood using the white rot fungus desarmillaria
       tabescens
        
       Author : gnabgib
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2024-12-02 19:02 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
        
       | fallinditch wrote:
       | I wasn't aware that rotting wood could be bioluminescent until I
       | saw it myself one night during a walk in the woods. I was
       | familiar with the terrain which enabled me to navigate at night
       | without torchlight. My eyes were accustomed to the dark, I
       | wouldn't have spotted it otherwise. On seeing the mysterious glow
       | I turned on my torch to inspect - it was an oak branch tinged
       | with a characteristic blue color, and very wet, the texture of
       | the wood was very soft. Location: Surrey, UK.
        
         | dekhn wrote:
         | I used to have extremely good dark adaptation and was able to
         | navigate trails in pitch-dark (no moon) nights, by looking away
         | (the sides of your vision are more sensitive to faint light)
         | and sort of defocusing... I'd see the shape of the trail
         | glowing slightly, and I believe it was bits of overturned wood
         | that had been rotting.
         | 
         | It's really subtle. Would only notice it on completely dark
         | nights entirely away from any light sources, and even then,
         | only on trails that had been recently traversed.
        
           | com2kid wrote:
           | Night vision is one of the things I miss most about being
           | really young.
           | 
           | Driving at night used to be fun! And I was easily able to
           | walk around in near pitch black.
           | 
           | Plenty other things can be maintained with good health and
           | exercise, but night vision isn't ever coming back. :(
        
             | dekhn wrote:
             | Yeah, I'm 52 and at some point in the last ten years, night
             | driving became really painful. I don't know how much of it
             | is due to my eyes changing, versus "improvements" in
             | headlights (of oncoming traffic; I notice that old lights
             | have a nice warm dim yellow, while newer lights tend to be
             | a bright cold white). or from grease on my inner windshield
             | :(.
             | 
             | But yeah, it totally turns what used to be a routine and
             | relaxing process into an exercise into "is that a tree or a
             | person dressed in dark clothing?"
        
               | qup wrote:
               | I don't think this is exactly what you're talking about,
               | but thought I'd drop a hint for anyone struggling with
               | twilight driving:
               | 
               | Use your visor to block out the sky. It's brighter than
               | the road part of the scene, and it forces your eyes to
               | pick the wrong "exposure." Blocking it helps quite a bit.
        
           | fallinditch wrote:
           | When walking in woodland at night in very dark conditions
           | without a torch, another good technique is to look up at the
           | shape of the tree branches silhouetted against the sky - you
           | can often discern where the trail goes.
        
       | yarg wrote:
       | My favourite story about bioluminescence is "angel's glow" in the
       | civil war.
       | 
       | A bioluminescent microbe colonised the wounds of civil war
       | soldiers, beating out pathogens and preventing sepsis.
       | 
       | https://www.utmb.edu/mdnews/podcast/episode/glowing-wounds
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-02 23:00 UTC)