Re: Of Wrapping Fungi and,

Thanks, CLEW.

The degradation is a bit frustrating.
Used to be much sharper.
I catch things after the fact, more these days.

Once had a gator friend.
Lived over a bayou.
Small one... just liked to hang out.
Never fed it.
When neighbors were fishing it would steal bait and fish.
Once it saw me it would stop what it was doing and swim over.
They said it was like a puppy with me and swore that I must have fed it.
I would never associate my hand with food with such a critter.

One neighbor who was talking to me while the gator came on over named it, "Tad."

For a tad too close.

A thought today about fiber optics and the Thing.
Just mused coming home from picking things up at WallyWorld.

If I were to pursue possible verification (or dismissal) of fiber optic capability of the Thing, I suppose I would.....

Make myself familiar with conventional fiber optics.
Get some very fine optical fiber and attempt to set up an experiment in passing light through one end of the white/translucent/transparent portion of the thing.

And, another thought came to mind in that drive, one I've entertained before.

Bioluminescence occurs in nature.
Quite a bit of work has been done with a particular jellyfish gene.

If people who can't leave well enough alone can put a fish gene into veggies to beef up frost-resistance, go for more yield per annum...

There is always that possibility that someone tweaked a jellyfish gene to remove the color and used that as part of whatever makes this particular portion of the Thing.

Here:
http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/GFP-1.htm
we are told:
"GFP is not responsible for the glow often seen in pictures of jellyfish - that "fluorescence" is actually due to the reflection of the flash used to photograph the jellies."

Then there are the light displays of some deep sea fish.....

I would imagine you've already thought about that.