
Why Some Civil War Soldiers Glowed in the Dark (2012) - DoreenMichele
http://mentalfloss.com/article/30380/why-some-civil-war-soldiers-glowed-dark
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jhbadger
Luminescent bacteria are fairly common and their glow was well known in the
19th century before massive amounts of artificial light made their rather
faint light less noticeable. Another example can be found in Dickens' "A
Christmas Carol" where Marley's glowing ghost is compared to "a bad lobster in
a dark cellar" as one way to know that food had gone off was to look for the
telltale glow.

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aaron695
Anyone have a link that reports on this "Angel's Glow" before this article
about the 2001 Sci fair project?

I find nothing.

Are we sure they didn't make it up that "Angel's Glow" ever existed?

I can't find any reference, everything seems to loop.

Clever if true, make up a legend to fit some loose facts.

The whole idea is a bit crazy, glowing soldiers living longer. But once you
accept that as 'fact' a convoluted idea around hypothermia, worms and glowing
seems less crazy.

[edit] Searching old newspapers and academia "fake", nothing before 2000.

Shiloh National Military Park agrees -
[https://www.facebook.com/ShilohNMP/posts/567566540000003:0](https://www.facebook.com/ShilohNMP/posts/567566540000003:0)

It's a bit of a no brainer, but their hack is what's interesting, make up a
legend to "solve", love it.

And it's interest how people blindly believe it, even though it's so so
convoluted. Then the loop starts and it becomes fact.

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quirkot
Source from USDA: [https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-
news/2001...](https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-
news/2001/students-may-have-answer-for-faster-healing-civil-war-wounds-that-
glowed/)

A google search for "Bill Martin 2001 Intel International Science and
Engineering Fair" returns multiple sources

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lilowl
excellent, thank you!

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danmg
Were they CIA?

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R_haterade
No, terry, the CIA didn’t exist yet.

~~~
danmg
You just take your car and run them right over. That's what you do.

