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sinuhe69
Light is just a form of electromagnetic radiation. All processes produce electromagnetic radiation, only different in the amount. So as we improve our equipments, we naturally can see more things like that.
IAmBroom
"See" is a poor verb choice. "Detect".
JumpCrisscross
Guessing these are surfacing due to the recent Radiolab podcast "The Spark of Life": https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-spark-of-life

> in the spectral range of 200–1000 nm

That's UV, visible and near IR. We know that 100-600 nm (infrared EDIT: UV) light "can carry out photostimulation and photobiomodulation effects particularly benefiting neural stimulation, wound healing, and cancer treatment" [1]. I'm curious what could be producing UV and visible light.

Does light production tend to hang out around any particular organs or organelles? If stress causes it, I'd hypothesise it's metabolic or signalling related.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5505738/

luxpsycho
This is the technology Skynet will harvest to track down and eliminate all life. Finally an objective and measurable metric for this pesky concept!
moduspol
How soon after death does it expire? Are we talking seconds? Hours?
stuaxo
We use a lot of energy, its not surprising we emit it.
amelius
This must be the light my supermarket uses to make meat look fresh.
ochronus
Oh no, this will feed the "aura" BSers
AngryData
Pretty much everything that is either capturing or releasing energy is giving off a spectrum of EM radiation. Usually it is mostly in the IR range, but you really just need sensitive enough equipment to get all sorts of EM noise.
indoordin0saur
Not "pretty much everything" but actually everything. The only way an object wouldn't emit radiation is if it was at absolute zero, which is something that exists literally no where in the universe.

That said, this light is not the result of just radiating heat and must have a different source.

dayvster
Woah that's wild, so this gives credence to some more spiritual stuff out there.
amelius
Can we detect it on exoplanets?
drcongo
Does this mean we can finally answer the question "at what point is a strawberry no longer alive"?
slightwinder
I prefer to call it heat. Just to clarify the picture.
ginko
..so black-body radiation?
griffzhowl
A lot of comments are assuming this is just heat.

This is specifically not thermal (blackbody) radiation, which is negligible at the visible frequency range for mice at these temperatures. The researchers find a difference in visible wavelength emission between living and dead mice at the same temperature

This point is addressed on page 2 of the paper, accessible on bioarxiv:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.08.622743v1

samirillian
You’re all made of stars you gotta let that shit shine okay?
Dove
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.
nottorp
Was "AI" used in this study?
Poomba
As someone wise once said, “You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine”
veunes
Kind of makes you wonder if this could eventually become a diagnostic tool, though I imagine the sensitivity requirements and ambient light issues are pretty brutal in real-world settings
cardiffspaceman
When you get dental X-rays, the technician aligns the instrument and leaves the room to push the button that triggers the image capture.

Another problem to solve though, is ignoring the E-M radiation from small life forms that may be in the room.