As soldiers lie wounded following the battle of Shiloh, some of them began to notice that their wounds were... glowing. After observing that those with glowing wounds had a better chance of survival than those without, the phenomenon became known as "Angels' Glow." Over a century later, it faded to little more than a battlefield legend, until a highschooler by the name of Bill Martin, whose mother was a microbiologist, heard of Angels' Glow while visiting the Shiloh battlefield. His mother just happened to be studying a bacteria called "Photorhabdus Luminescens," which prompted him, with the aid of his friend Jon Curtis, to further research the glowing wounds of Shiloh. "Based on the evidence that P. luminescens was present at Shiloh and the reports of the strange glow from the soldier wounds, Martin and Curtis hypothesized that the glowing bacteria invaded the soldiers’ wounds when nematodes preyed on insect larva who are naturally attracted to such injuries. The resulting infestation could have wiped out any competing, pathogenic bacteria found in wounds besides bathing them in a surreal glow.The only caveat with the hypothesis was that P. luminescens cannot survive at human body temperatures. The young scientists had to come up with a novel explanation to fit this piece of the puzzle. The clue lay in the harsh conditions of the battlefield itself. The battle was fought in early April when temperatures were low and the grounds were wet with rain. The injured soldiers were left to the elements of nature and suffered from hypothermia. This would provide a perfect environment for P. luminescens to overtake and kill off harmful bacteria. Then, when the soldiers were transported to a warmer environment, their bodies would have naturally killed off the bug." (Radhika Ganeshan)
