A ghostly glow was seen emanating from living things in 2025

What’s Happening

Let’s talk about The detection of mercurial particles of light emanating from mice led to a flurry of interest in biophotons, a mysterious phenomenon that could have applications in agriculture Life A ghostly glow was seen emanating from living things in 2025 The detection of mercurial particles of light emanating from mice led to a flurry of interest in biophotons, a mysterious phenomenon that could have applications in agriculture By Alex Wilkins 25 December 2025 Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email Living things produce biophotons Mike_shots/ This year, scientists observed an eerie glow emanating from mice that disappears after death, reminiscent of paranormal ideas of a bodily aura.

The discovery led to a flurry of interest in the underlying science of biophotons. Biophotons are ultraweak particles of light that are produced living cells including mitochondria, which generate energy. (we’re not making this up)

Researchers have long sought out these mercurial, faint signals, and the field has often been controversial, in part because of the extreme difficulty of separating out biophotons from other sources of light, like infrared radiation, and proving that they are real.

The Details

A whole new world of tiny beings challenges fundamental ideas of life The experimental hurdles have meant that previous biophoton studies tended to focus on smaller, specific body parts. But in May, Daniel Oblak at the University of Calgary in Canada and his colleagues detected biophotons emanating from the entire body in four hairless mice.

After the mice died, these biophotons rapidly faded away. They also detected biophotons being emitted from the leaves of an umbrella tree ( Heptapleurum arboricola ).

Why This Matters

This more comprehensive, and careful, study made their existence more difficult to deny. In the weeks after New Scientist reported on the study, a number of other media outlets contacted Oblak and his team for more interviews. The phenomenons resemblance to a psychic “aura” , the glow that psychics claim can indicate a person’s physical and spiritual health, may have partly broke down people’s interest in the work, says Oblak.

This could have implications for future research in this area.

The Bottom Line

The phenomenons resemblance to a psychic “aura” , the glow that psychics claim can indicate a person’s physical and spiritual health, may have partly broke down people’s interest in the work, says Oblak.

Is this a W or an L? You decide.