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UPE, also known as biophoton emission, is a spontaneous release of extremely low-intensity light that is invisible to the human eye and falls within the spectra

UPE, also known as biophoton emission, is a spontaneous release of extremely low-intensity light that is invisible to the human eye and falls within the spectral range of 200–1,000 nm Part of that is in the infrared spectrum, and the other end in UV (including A, B, and C). Isn't this just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation that everything with a non-zero absolute temperature emits? Dead beings would obviously cool down and reduce the amount of radiation they emit.

addaon 1y ago
> invisible to the human eye Also unclear how the light would be invisible to the human eye, given that the human eye has single-photon sensitivity smack in the middle of that range.
- throw10920 1y ago
  I noticed that too and I agree that sounds wrong - I suspect the authors of the popsci phys article were being hasty and wrote poorly, using "invisible" to refer to the intensity, separate from the frequency (even though it's misleadingly mentioned immediately after). Or maybe they're just wrong and didn't realize that 500 nm is visible light - that's possible too.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
throw10920 1y ago
> Isn't this just...black-body radiation? I think that they explicitly controlled for that. From the article: > The results revealed that despite both groups having the same body temperature of 37°C, the live mice showed robust emissions, whereas the UPE from the euthanized mice was nearly extinguished. It's possible that they controlled improperly, but that's another question - from my reading of the above, they artificially heated the corpses (or measured immediately after death) to control for blackbody radiation.
- mock-possum 1y ago
  Did they kill those mice just so they could see whether they stopped glowing when they died? :/
  - junon 1y ago
    Could be, yes. Mice have it real bad in labs. Many people have commented over the years about not being able to pursue their careers doing lab work because of all the abuse on mice. One of those uncomfortable realities we live in; the mice have allowed us to make so many discoveries but it's a bit macabre how it all works.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - whimsicalism 1y ago
    humans kill animals by hundreds of millions every single day, i have trouble understanding the furor caused specifically by lab experiments which are likely significantly more beneficial than the median slaughter
  - rayiner 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - mrguyorama 1y ago
    They are studying the difference between a live thing and a not-alive thing. What thing would you rather they have killed? Or would you rather not study this at all?
  - _DeadFred_ 1y ago
    "Good new, we discovered souls. Also... good? (cough) news we..... let many mice souls free"

addaon 1y ago

> invisible to the human eye Also unclear how the light would be invisible to the human eye, given that the human eye has single-photon sensitivity smack in the middle of that range.

throw10920 1y ago
I noticed that too and I agree that sounds wrong - I suspect the authors of the popsci phys article were being hasty and wrote poorly, using "invisible" to refer to the intensity, separate from the frequency (even though it's misleadingly mentioned immediately after). Or maybe they're just wrong and didn't realize that 500 nm is visible light - that's possible too.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

throw10920 1y ago

> Isn't this just...black-body radiation? I think that they explicitly controlled for that. From the article: > The results revealed that despite both groups having the same body temperature of 37°C, the live mice showed robust emissions, whereas the UPE from the euthanized mice was nearly extinguished. It's possible that they controlled improperly, but that's another question - from my reading of the above, they artificially heated the corpses (or measured immediately after death) to control for blackbody radiation.

mock-possum 1y ago
Did they kill those mice just so they could see whether they stopped glowing when they died? :/
- junon 1y ago
  Could be, yes. Mice have it real bad in labs. Many people have commented over the years about not being able to pursue their careers doing lab work because of all the abuse on mice. One of those uncomfortable realities we live in; the mice have allowed us to make so many discoveries but it's a bit macabre how it all works.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- whimsicalism 1y ago
  humans kill animals by hundreds of millions every single day, i have trouble understanding the furor caused specifically by lab experiments which are likely significantly more beneficial than the median slaughter
- rayiner 1y ago
  [flagged]
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  They are studying the difference between a live thing and a not-alive thing. What thing would you rather they have killed? Or would you rather not study this at all?
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago
  "Good new, we discovered souls. Also... good? (cough) news we..... let many mice souls free"