Scientists start to untangle the chemistry behind the mysterious light
Making and sustaining such bioluminescence requires energy. But the slime’s power source is a mystery since it glows outside the body, where it can’t draw energy from the worms. So to unlock its secrets, scientists are dissecting the goo’s complicated chemistry.De Meulenaere and her colleagues noticed a spike in the mucus’s light when they exposed the slime to blue light. “That’s the weirdest thing,” she says. “The mucus produces blue light itself. So is it powering itself?”To find out, the researchers separated molecules from the mucus based on size and other properties to identify proteins, sugars and metals. This process of untangling the slime’s recipe revealed that iron may contribute to the enduring glow. The mucus contains ferritin, a protein that stores iron and releases electrically charged iron atoms, or ions. Those ions can trigger the mucus to emit bursts of blue light, the team found.
