Mushrooms that glow in the dark?
This month, a wave of alien-looking mushrooms swept through Goa in India, capturing international attention. This spectacle is far from new, with its origins dating back to antiquity - even Aristotle wrote about it in his writings.
The luminescence in these mushrooms is no illusion - it is the result of a complex enzymatic reaction. According to Jay Dunlap, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, the enzyme luciferase acts on a substrate called luciferin, causing it to oxidize and release high-energy intermediates as light instead of heat.
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