Living things produce “biophotons” Mike_shots/Shutterstock 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 by structures in living cells including mitochondria, which generate energy. Researchers have long sought out these mercurial, faint signals, and the field has often been controversial, in part due to the extreme difficulty of separating out biophotons from other sources of light, like infrared radiation, and proving that they are real. 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). This more comprehensive, and careful, study made …