A New Light to Lead the Way

Biophotons (Marchant, 2026)

The eyecatching phenomenon of bioluminescence, when a living organism gives off light, is rather well known to the general public (in part due to their association with jellyfish). Bioluminescence is caused specifically by certain biochemical reactions. However, an organism giving off some light isn’t limited to those who are bioluminescent.

Every living organism gives off biophotons, which, in simple terms, are just very weak light particles. In contrast with bioluminescence, biophotons are thought to be caused by regular chemical processes in cells. The interesting and beneficial part is that biophotons could possibly be used for better diagnosis of diseases, though this idea is currently unproven. Serious research on biophotons is quite recent, as the idea that all organisms give off light was considered to be pseudoscience for a time.

The Ideas and Reality of Biophotons

The first person to suggest that cells could communicate through light particles was Dr. Alexander Gurwitsch, a Russian biologist in the 1920s. He came to this conclusion by conducting experiments on onion roots, noting that one growing root could spur another to start cellular division. This effect was blocked with opaque plates, and he concluded that cells responded to photons. This result was hard to replicate, and most dismissed it as pseudoscience. This idea shifted when biophysicist Fritz-Albert Popp concurred that biophotons were emitted structurally, but the connections with homeopathy and acupuncture that he suggested led mainstream researchers to avoid biophotons.

The current, recently studied, belief is that biophotons are used for cellular signaling and communication. They are produced by aerobic metabolism, where cells use oxygen to break down nutrients and get energy from them, which mostly takes place in mitochondria. In simple terms, chemicals produced from oxygen during this process make molecules that decay into an excited electronic state. As these molecules relax, photons are emitted. It’s likely that these biophotons are the basis of cellular communication in the human body, as they are rather important in cellular electromagnetic communication for most other life. Cells use them to relay messages between each other, as quantum computing has proven that photons themselves can carry information. In addition to this, they also partake in many other roles, like helping to regulate metabolism as a whole and possibly helping DNA function.

The Potential Benefits of Biophotons

Biophotons are mostly a part of normal metabolism reactions, but multiple studies have shown that cellular stress responses cause a burst of emitted light. Just by watching the light emitted, it could be possible to detect oxidative stress, which is associated with cancer. So, further studying biophotons could help us detect cancer early and act accordingly in the future. In addition to this, it’s also possible that biophotons are an essential part of how the brain works and communicates. With further study, we could understand the mechanisms of neural communication and neurodegenerative diseases, progressing our efforts to find treatments.

The field of biophoton research is a very new one, and new studies are coming up every day. It’s possible that biophotons won’t be useful in biotechnology or medicine, but it’s more likely that their study will lead to better treatments and a new understanding of biophysics. Whatever the case, biophoton research should be watched, for it could lead to groundbreaking technologies.

Sources

Marchant, J. (2026). All living things emit a faint glow. Could this light be useful? Nature, 655(8125), 1116–1119. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02311-z

Nevoit, G., Poderiene, K., Potyazhenko, M., Mintser, O., Jarusevicius, G., & Vainoras, A. (2025). The concept of biophotonic signaling in the human body and brain: rationale, problems and directions. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2025.1597329

First Institute of All Medicines. (2026). First Institute of All Medicines. https://www.firstallmed.org/pages/biophoton-research-overview

Biophotons as neural communication signals demonstrated by in situ biophoton autography. (2010) . Rsc.Org. https://pubs.rsc.org/pp/article-abstract/9/3/315/323123/Biophotons-as-neural-communication-signals