Bioluminescent mushrooms. On Earth.

[Puvomun]

Someone sent me this link on sciencedaily.com.

"Mushroom Lights Up the Night in Brazil: Researcher Finds Bioluminescent Fungus Not Seen Since 1840
ScienceDaily (July 7, 2011) — In 1840, renowned English botanist George Gardner reported a strange sight from the streets of Vila de Natividade in Brazil: A group of boys playing with a glowing object that turned out to be a luminescent mushroom. They called it "flor-de-coco," and showed Gardner where it grew on decaying fronds at the base of a dwarf palm. Gardner sent the mushroom to the Kew Herbarium in England where it was described and named Agaricus gardneri in honor of its discoverer. The species was not seen again until 2009."

Hit the link for more.

[Irtaviš Ačankif]

Ahh...skxawng, srak? (see how I'm falling in love with "skxawng")

Jack-o-lantern mushrooms have always been biolumeniscent. John Doe discovered one, the first one since yesterday!

No offense though. Jack-o-lanterns are only extremely faintly lumeniscent.

[Human No More]

Interesting

Now we need to add the bioluminescence to humans

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

That is very cool!

Now we need to add the bioluminescence to humans

Fì'u.

[Clarke]

Interesting

Now we need to add the bioluminescence to humans

The future says hi.  
(OK, it's not bioluminescence, but it's close enough, isn't it?  )

[archaic]

Is it available in tanhi blue? And if not, why not?

[Raiden]

As others have said, bioluminescence is rather common in fungi. Several genera of Basidiomycete fungi have species that bioluminesce, such as the genus Omphalotus and Panellus Stipticus.

The reaction that causes the bioluminescence in fungi occurs between the enzyme luciferase (wicked name for an enzyme, no?) and luciferin. Luciferase oxidizes luciferin, and photons of pale green light are emitted as part of the reaction products.

It is really no surprise that a fungus species went dormant like that. It's likely that it was alive the whole time, just in very small numbers, and that there were ungerminated spores. A rainstorm in just the right spot would really be all they would have needed to germinate again, or be swept to a location where the conditions were more preferable.

As for bioluminescence in general, the problem with obtaining the type of bioluminescence that the Na'vi have is that they actually aren't just glowing freckles, they're photophores. A photophore is actually a light-producing organ, found in many species of deep sea Cephalopods and fish. Photophores may work in one of generally two ways; biochemically or via symbiotic bacteria that the animal's body cultures. In the case of the bacteria, the bacteria would have to have a protein or enzyme that did the glowing, and they would have to be fed by the animal's own bloodstream in order to survive. In the case of the chemically induced method, it would work via specialized mitochondria (a part of animal cells) that would be present in the photophore cells, which would be releasing photons as one of the endpoints of cellular respiration.

For the Na'vi, the biochemical method would work better, since they wouldn't be spending so much energy on keeping trillions of bacteria fed. It would be more energetically feasible and less upkeep to be utilizing their own cells than using another organism. The only problem with this is that it means that it would be really hard to utilize such a system for humans that wished to modify themselves; gene therapy would be extremely complex and tedious, since you'd be adding a whole organ system to yourself, and mistakes could yield disastrous (albeit somewhat humorous) consequences. Plus, the extra calories you would need to consume to keep the photophores glowing would need to be considered, and there would need to be some kind of finely designed control over when they were on and when they were off, which could mean that your nervous system would need to be altered as well.

However, using a system that ran off of machines might work. Nanotechnologies of the future may yield such possibilities as LEDs that are small enough and are of different sizes that run off of nanoscopically small networks of metal "nerves" that would uplink with the nerves in other parts of your body to conduct electricity to the LEDs. Again, though, it would take training to know how to turn on and off different sets of synthetic photophores, much like a person with a prosthetic hand learning to use their muscles to operate a system that isn't really a part of their own body. I suppose they could "wire" different synthetic photophores to run when certain emotions occur, but that, again, would be very complex and I could see it requiring brain surgery.

I suppose the future holds the answers, once again.

['Itan Atxur]

A family friend has actually seen some of those wild.

Post # 5000!!

[Raiden]

A family friend has actually seen some of those wild.

Post # 5000!!

I've seen them before too.

Not at night, unfortunately, but I saw some in an arboretum/forest in my city once. I'm not sure what species, but it must have been something in genus Omphalotus.

[Kamean]

Irayo seiyi. Interesting.

[Human No More]

Adding bioluminescent capabilities to humans is possible - photophores could certainly theoretically be created and added, and honestly, while a way to switch them would be technically plausible, I wouldn't care at all - I could always have mine going. The amount of energy needed would be negligible.

Alternatively, LEDs that are small and flexible enough (and use no metals) have already been created, but have not quite reached implantable stage. They would likely use more energy depending on how they were powered (they could be powered from the potential generated by skin, which wouldn't need any extra), while their advantage is that they would be easier to implant, and control would be much easier to implement with a simple circuit of NAND gates connected to a nerve - then it would take some practice, but allow people to switch them on and off as they wish.

Edit: typo

[archaic]

I suspect that actual implementation might be a way off, but I don't see why that wouldn't work.

[Äteya]

Sticking stuff under my skin is very freaky to me.