The Secret of Glowing Fungi

[00:00:00]Walk into this forest at night, and the ground is glowing. [music] No torch, no moonbeam.

[00:00:07]The light is [music] coming from living things.

[00:00:10]People have seen this eerie green glow for more than [music] 2,000 years.

[00:00:15]To the old stories, it was foxfire, a cold fire with no heat.

[00:00:20]But, no one knew why it shines.

[00:00:22]It's real bioluminescence, the same trick a firefly uses.

[00:00:27]A molecule called luciferin meets an [music] enzyme, and with oxygen, it releases cool green light.

[00:00:34]And, it's not [music] just the mushrooms.

[00:00:36]Deep in the rotting wood, the fungus's living threads glow, too. A hidden network quietly burning [music] green.

[00:00:44]Here's the twist. The glow isn't constant. It runs on an internal [music] clock, brightening at night, fading by day.

[00:00:52]But, light costs [music] energy. So, why would a fungus pay to glow on schedule?

[00:00:57]In 2015, >> [music] >> scientists in Brazil set a trap to find out. They built fake mushrooms lit by green LEDs, and the glowing ones lured in far more beetles and flies [music] than the dark ones beside them.

[00:01:09]The leading idea? Those insects are couriers. They crawl over the fungus, pick up its spores, [music] and carry new life off into the dark.

[00:01:17]So, that rotting log isn't dying quietly. It's glowing [music] on purpose, calling for help to spread itself, one tiny passenger at a time.