When I read the headline I thought this was spicy radioactive wood but this is way cooler.
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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I was hoping it to be extra spicy, but if it's glowing that hard you don't want to be anywhwere near it in that case.
Looks more like it's just something you'd use as an indicator light. Like the legs of a table in the middle of the night. There doesn't seem to be any actual radiance to it.
The researchers found that the fungus and wood need to be incubated together for three months in a very moist environment. During this time the balsa wood absorbs up to eight times its weight in water, and the glow begins only when it’s exposed to oxygen.
The most effective combo turned out to be ringless honey fungus (Desarmillaria tabescens) and balsa wood, which was able to fluoresce for up to 10 days in wavelengths of 560 nanometers
Three months of production for 10 days of glow?
the team found that the fungus breaks down the lignin in the wood
The ultimate goal, they say in the paper, would be to provide energy-saving lighting in homes or public spaces.
This seems like a pipe dream considering that part of the wood is consumed during use, meaning that the entire lighting unit needs to be replaced when it dies.
Let's say they get the ratio up to 1:1 (a month of glow for a month of production - probably a stretch but let's be generous). An LED could provide more light for years of operation, and I seriously doubt that the transportation of bricks of waterlogged wood every month would be a good energy tradeoff for the electricity needed to run the LED.
but its wood