KEY POINTS
- Living beings emit a faint, real glow called biophoton emission that vanishes the moment life ends
- This glow isn’t magic or myth—it’s light made by chemical reactions inside our living cells
- New research shows stressed plants and living animals emit these tiny flashes, invisible to the naked eye
ISLAMABAD: Scientists have discovered that all living things, including humans, emit a very faint light while they are alive, and it disappears the moment they die, according to a new study from Canada.
It’s not an aura, not magic, and not a TikTok trend. It’s real light, made of tiny particles called photons, and scientists have finally seen it happen.
According to new research from scientists at the University of Calgary and Canada’s National Research Council, every living thing emits a soft, faint light. It’s called biophoton emission, and it’s as real as your heartbeat.
The glow is so weak that our eyes can’t see it. But with sensitive cameras that can detect even single photons (tiny particles of light), scientists have now proven this invisible shimmer exists—and that it disappears the moment life ends.
Catching light in dark
To study this glow, researchers placed mice inside completely dark, high-tech containers designed to block out all outside light.
What they recorded was a soft, continuous emission of photons—the smallest particles of visible light—coming from the living animals.
Then, when the mice were gently and humanely euthanised, that glow stopped immediately.
Even though the mice were kept warm—so the loss of body heat wasn’t a factor—the light vanished. This confirmed what the scientists suspected: the glow isn’t about temperature. It’s about life itself.
Chemistry of life and light
So, where does this light come from?
Inside every living cell, chemical reactions are always happening to keep us alive. As a byproduct of these reactions, special molecules called reactive oxygen species (or ROS) are formed. These molecules can produce tiny flashes of light.
As long as these chemical reactions are taking place, the body glows. But once the reactions stop—at death- the glow disappears too.
Plants do it, too. When leaves are stressed- by heat, lack of water, or injury – they emit a stronger glow. It’s like a silent distress signal from the plant’s cells, again caused by ROS.
Tiny glow with big possibilities
Though we can’t see this light ourselves, the technology to detect it opens up some fascinating possibilities:
In medicine, it could be used to check for disease, stress, or inflammation in the body- completely without touching or invading it. A stronger or unusual glow might be a clue that something’s wrong.
In farming, it could help spot crops under stress before they start to wilt or die. Farmers could act faster, saving time, resources, and harvests.
And in brain science, researchers are exploring whether our neurons—our brain cells—might also communicate using these tiny flashes of light. It’s still early, but the idea is exciting.
Not just science- something more
Some scientists remain sceptical. They argue that this light is just another way to see that life has stopped, like how body heat fades after death. Still, the fact that we can now detect the actual light given off by life’s inner chemistry is remarkable.
It also makes us think differently about what it means to be alive.
This research reminds us that life is delicate. We each carry a hidden light inside us—a soft shimmer that fades the instant our body stops living. It’s not something we can see in a mirror, but it’s there, quietly glowing as long as our cells keep working.
And when life ends, that light goes out.
Quiet radiance
Maybe that old idea about someone “glowing” with joy or energy isn’t so far from the truth. We do glow- just in a way we’ve only now begun to understand.
So what does this mean for us?
Perhaps it’s a reminder that life, for all its noise and chaos, is also full of quiet wonders. That inside every heartbeat, every breath, every leaf and blade of grass, there’s a hidden light shining in the dark.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s one more reason to appreciate the light we carry -and to shine while we can.
Seeing light on NDE
Psychologist Kenneth Ring in 1980’s gave five-stage model of Near-Death Experience (NDE), including “seeing the light” and “entering another realm through the light,” raising compelling questions: could this faint glow be connected in some way to what people describe in those moments near death?
Though science doesn’t claim to explain NDEs, it now confirms one thing—we do, in a very real sense, shine until the moment we stop.
