Glows

[GinnyStar]

Well I'm listening/reading to one, and they are exploring the cave system around Landing, and that it takes lot of glows to see. in The Renegades of Pern

[CuriousFlit]

Check this out!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...inescent_fungi

I didn't know Earth had glowing fungus too.

EDIT: well I knew about ONE type, but that was it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxfire

Conditions that affect the growth of fungi, such as pH, light and temperature, have been found to influence bioluminescence, suggesting a link between metabolic activity and fungal bioluminescence.

So maybe setting the glows out in the sun makes them glow brighter when they're put back in the dark?

[CuriousFlit]

Could glows actually be a type of moss or lichen, since they can grow on rocks? I'm learning more towards a moss, since that can be cultivated... That could also explain it growing in swamps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss

[CuriousFlit]

Also it turns out that, contrary to popular belief, moss actually does need sunlight to grow, it just grows in the shade because it needs a damp environment too.

[CuriousFlit]

How did I miss this? In Chronicles of Pern: First Fall "The Survey: P.E.R.N" after they find a sample of glows, the crew member who found it says "Luminous lichens or organisms are not my forte."

https://books.google.com/books?id=oN...ichens&f=false

So it IS either a lichen or a moss! I'm still leaning more towards moss. If I read the wikipedia articles right, mosses grow faster than lichens, and mosses can be farmed, which is what the Pernese do with glows (I couldn't find anything about cultivating lichens).

EDIT: Nevermind, turns out you can grow lichens too. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Horticulture/Lichen

[vyon]

Firstly, it does appear that there are Anne-glows and Todd-glows that are a totally different species.
When it comes to Anne-glows I always see them as like the glowing mushrooms that we had when I lived in the tropics - I'd find my way down a long drive in the dark by avoiding them - they were in the trees that lined the drive, and they were a blueish colour.
Underground lights are quite possible too. After all, we have glowworms in damp caves.
The trouble is, both lights can be seen easily, but don't actually cast a light. No matter how many there were, you couldn't read by them.
I think this is a situation where imagination triumphs over science. It works if you just visualise them but doesn't work if you try too hard to analyse it into a concrete science.

[CuriousFlit]

I read somewhere that if you have enough foxfire in one place, you might be able read by it. That type of glowing fungus was used to light the needles on the barometer and the compass of the Turtle, a prototype submarine from the American Revolutionary War.

[CuriousFlit]

I remember in one of the books, either AtWoP or SoP, that Toric was in a meeting, and he knocked over a glow basket, and the spilled glows got the papers on his desk wet. That might be another point for them being moss, since moss has to be kept damp and can hold lots of water, if I'm remembering the scene right. Could someone please check that for me? I can't find my copy of either book right now.

Also, it would make sense too since people have to "tend" the glows. Lichen, you should be able to leave alone, but moss would need to be kept watered so it wouldn't dry out. Though if Vyon is right about them being mushrooms, how would you tend mushrooms?

[vyon]

Maybe you need to keep them damp? I can't remember if those glowing mushrooms were there when the weather got dry.
I don't know if I'm right, my books are all still packed, but I had the idea that there was some processing going on between the raw material that glows were made of and the finished product.

[P'ter]

There are references to Menolly having to change the glows on a daily basis.

[granath]

On Earth, there are about 80 different species of bioluminescent fungi.

Lichens are symbiotic organisms, with algae or cyanobacteria living in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus. My guess is that glows might be some kind of lichen. Many species can tolerate drying out pretty well and just continue growing when the conditions are right once again.

[GinnyStar]

Originally Posted by CuriousFlit

I remember in one of the books, either AtWoP or SoP, that Toric was in a meeting, and he knocked over a glow basket, and the spilled glows got the papers on his desk wet. That might be another point for them being moss, since moss has to be kept damp and can hold lots of water, if I'm remembering the scene right. Could someone please check that for me? I can't find my copy of either book right now. <snip> The Renegades of Pern, and Piemur had to stamp out the extra, just before they were praticting timing it.
Also, it would make sense too since people have to "tend" the glows. Lichen, you should be able to leave alone, but moss would need to be kept watered so it wouldn't dry out. Though if Vyon is right about them being mushrooms, how would you tend mushrooms?

Depending on the type, only ones that I know of are grown from spores in wood, a retied science teacher that lived near the school was get ready to grow some, while I was on a work experience at a local nursing home.

[vyon]

The ones that I remember from Norfolk Island would have been growing on wood - which was a good reason for avoiding them when I wanted to stay on the clear driveway.

[Snake]

So, I have always thought of glows as a crystaline structure that grows in areas without oxygen (some some other gas in the Pern atmosphere) and, when it is exposed to oxygen the compound it is made of breaks down, producing an chemoluminescent reaction. This is a similar concept as Firestone, which, after digested by a dragon, generates a gas that reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere to make an exothermic reaction, resulting in fire. I have also always though of glows as being a blueish color, but making a soft white light. I think that the could possibly only be formed under swaps by some chemicals from the swamp seeping underground to create new compounds, similarly to will-o-wisps, or something like that. Please tell me what you think of my theory.