Glow in the Dark Soldiers and a Civil War Mystery At the Battle of Shiloh, some wounded soldiers waited days in the chilly rain for medical help. When soldiers usually waited that long, they were prone to deadly infections that doctors at the time couldn’t do anything about, much less understand the cause. Some of them noticed that their wounds were glowing at night. Were they hallucinating?And those with glowing wounds had better survival rates. 140 years later someone figured out why. Soil-dwelling worms like the one above are filled with bacteria that they use to eat and protect food they find in the soil. The luminescent bacteria inside the nematodes fight off other bacteria, and the worm and bacteria both get a tasty meal all to themselves. The soil of the Shiloh battlefield was full of these worms and bacteria, and when they got into the soldier’s wounds they created a glowing, antiseptic worm bandage.  (via Mental Floss image via Nikon’s Small World)
Pop-upView Separately

Glow in the Dark Soldiers and a Civil War Mystery

At the Battle of Shiloh, some wounded soldiers waited days in the chilly rain for medical help. When soldiers usually waited that long, they were prone to deadly infections that doctors at the time couldn’t do anything about, much less understand the cause.

Some of them noticed that their wounds were glowing at night. Were they hallucinating?And those with glowing wounds had better survival rates. 140 years later someone figured out why.

Soil-dwelling worms like the one above are filled with bacteria that they use to eat and protect food they find in the soil. The luminescent bacteria inside the nematodes fight off other bacteria, and the worm and bacteria both get a tasty meal all to themselves.

The soil of the Shiloh battlefield was full of these worms and bacteria, and when they got into the soldier’s wounds they created a glowing, antiseptic worm bandage. 

(via Mental Floss image via Nikon’s Small World)

Source: mentalfloss.com

900 Notes/ Hide

  1. inner-workings-of-a-doll reblogged this from cheekilyflirtatious
  2. shiloh-hill reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. entertain-the-brain reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  4. allbrookismine reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  5. gwenndael reblogged this from aerien and added:
    En somme : les soldats de la Guerre de Sécession étaient radieux avant d’aller au combat ; ils avaient l’air irradiés en...
  6. outfitofafashionablesciencewoman reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  7. frankie-felony reblogged this from hannibalkanibalas
  8. madlyalice reblogged this from hannibalkanibalas
  9. trollonasan reblogged this from hannibalkanibalas
  10. hannibalkanibalas reblogged this from vae-v1ctus
  11. hairoffizz reblogged this from nom-chompsky
  12. aguhon reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  13. forkushandshit reblogged this from poisonfartdog
  14. poisonfartdog reblogged this from alienschoolgirl and added:
    iwa nt worm bandage
  15. searchingforknowledge reblogged this from lovewashername
  16. oldterror reblogged this from alienschoolgirl
  17. alienschoolgirl reblogged this from note-a-bear
  18. kaernkupthenoise reblogged this from vae-v1ctus
  19. paganbagel reblogged this from vae-v1ctus and added:
    i think i would have rather heard of this story during the civil war and thought it was magic
  20. vae-v1ctus reblogged this from note-a-bear
  21. lovewashername reblogged this from note-a-bear
  22. panamanianmoon said: i just want to let you know that this is literally the worst thing i could read tonight and also any night of my life
  23. note-a-bear reblogged this from mermeanie
  24. freckles-holla reblogged this from mermeanie
  25. mermeanie reblogged this from tsisqua
  26. silence-is-not-golden reblogged this from tsisqua
  27. tsisqua reblogged this from ellaminnowpea
  28. ja-vert-javier reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  29. kiraai reblogged this from ellaminnowpea

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus