Saturday, April 14, 2012

Medical mystery of the day: Angel glow

The glowing wounded soldiers at Shilo...'

was it Photorhabdus_luminescens?

more HERE.

and from the NakedScientist:


The problem of wound infection is exemplified nowhere better than on the battlefield where, throughout history, soil- and shrapnel-contaminated injuries have rendered soldiers much more likely to die from an infection than a bullet.

Of course, not all victims of such wound infections suffered a death sentence. There were survivors. But in the First World War, those that did survive frequently had a feature in common: wounds that glowed in the dark. Not only that, but their fluorescing tissues appeared to heal more cleanly and more quickly than the unilluminated wounds of their counterparts. And because it offered better survival prospects to the victims, this mysterious phenomenon became known as the "Angel’s Glow".

Today, it is thought that the effect is most likely to have been caused by a naturally-luminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens. This soil-dwelling microbe produces a number of deadly products that can kill off competing potential pathogens, but is itself harmless to humans. Naturally, the afflicted soldiers had no idea that the glow was caused by a beneficial bacterial infection and instead interpreted it as the gift of survival from God, handed to them by by angels, hence the name.

headsup the corner

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