AAccording to the myth, the ghostly blue lights, often called Will-O'-THE-WISP, can deceive travelers wandering around the cemeteries or make their way through water-bell grounds, which leads them from the way and to death. It was believed that these lights stem from flickering lanterns carried by otherworldly creatures, such as fairies and ghosts, who intended to mislead unfortunate people. Such attractions have long mixed “vulgar superstition and philosophical curiosity”, wrote Rev. John Mitchell in 1829.
Also known as Jack-O'-Lanterns or HinkyPunks, among other bizarre nicknames, these types of phenomena appeared in stories and works from around the world, from the United States and Japan to Scotland and Thailand.
This is a long time It was suspected that these seemingly supernatural events were actually a natural phenomenon: “fables … have a little value for the purposes of science,” Mitchell noted two centuries ago, suggesting that the true source was “steam”, possibly gray hydrogen, “mud release”, which then lit in contact with air.
Later studies indicated methane as the perpetrator: since the decaying organic matter in these moist surroundings produces metatan, this marshy gas is subject to oxidation in the air and suddenly lights up to create this terrible blue glow of knowledge. But it is not clear what caused this sparks in nature, because oxidation usually requires a significant impulse of energy. “It was a mystery for this terrible light,” wrote Richard Zar, a chemist from Stanford University, by e -mail.
Now ZAR and his colleagues say that they illuminated the impetus behind these mystical flames: “micropolitaning”, according to study Published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesField
When methane bubbles reach the surface of the water, they burst, says Zare, creating a mixture of positively and negatively charged “micropouses”. When the bubbles with opposite charges mix, it comes out of a tiny lightning flash. This spark begins the oxidation of methane and the corresponding blue glow.
Zar and other scientists I came up with the term microbayt In 2024, when they observed the same phenomenon in droplets of water. To see whether this can explain the mystery of the will-o-piss, the researchers have developed a “micropousis generator”, which shoots meta-air bubbles at the water reservoir.
Against the backdrop of “dense bubble conditions”, the authors recorded quick flashes between the bubbles, which seemed coordinated with the microlyte. They also observed other signs of these small outbreaks in the tank, including slightly elevated water temperature and methane oxidation, such as carbon dioxide.
This revelation goes beyond Terrible swamps: Zaps of microLightning in the fog of a watery spray can even be They called chemical reactions This created the molecules necessary for the earliest forms of life.
“When you understand a possible connection with the creation of building blocks of life on the early Earth, this, in my opinion, is potentially quite deep,” says Zar.
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Leading Image: Herman Hendrich / Vikimedia Commons
