Spooklights
What happens when the lights go out? Chemist Andrea Sella investigates will o' the wisps and other faint phenomena we never see because modern life has eradicated total darkness.
Folk tales are full of fleeting phenomena like will o' the wisps, faint glows that must have spooked our ancestors.
But these days, it's just about impossible to escape the omnipresent illumination of modern life, and these evocative spooklights have vanished like ghosts.
Chemist Andrea Sella explores the science of lights so dim, they can be witnessed only in complete darkness.
From the spontaneous combustion of marsh gas to the lightning sparks emitted by crushed sugar, Professor Sella finds there's more to light than ever meets the eye.
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Boxing Day 2011 19:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online
- Tue 27 Dec 2011 04:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online
- Tue 27 Dec 2011 12:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online
- New Year's Day 2012 22:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online
- Mon 2 Jan 2012 03:32GMT大象传媒 World Service Online
Space
The eclipses, spacecraft and astronauts changing our view of the Universe
The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry
Podcast
-
Discovery
Explorations in the world of science.