Luminous Phenomena A Story of Spontaneous Combustion, Phosphorescence and Other Cold Lights

About this book

Light is essential to basically all life on earth; even where the light of the sun doesn't reach, we find plants and creatures which emit their own light. Fire, light with heat, is one of the oldest technologies humanity has harnessed, and we understand it fairly well. But around the world, examples of strange light that behaves differently to fire abound. Chemistry, physics and biology can provide some of the answers as to what these phenomena are and how they occur.

Luminous Phenomena focuses upon a series of uncommon or rarely reported luminous events. It demonstrates how little we still understand about our planet and provides original descriptions and explanations, updating them in terms of current scientific thought. Learn what we do and don't know about these phenomena and be inspired to investigate further.

Contents

1. Introduction to Chemistry, Flames and Radiation
2. Spontaneous Combustion in Human Hands
3. Spontaneous Combustion in the Hands of Nature
4. St Elmo's Fire and Related Electrical Phenomena
5. Radon and Radioactivity
6. Luminous Minerals, Stones and Powders
7. Luminous Seas
8. Luminous Land Plants, Microbes and Fungi
9. The Ignis fatuus or Will o' the Wisp

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Biography

Allan Pentecost hails from the town of Southborough in Kent. His primary school on Southborough Common allowed him to observe and become inspired by the natural world. He was introduced to chemistry by an uncle who bought him a Lotts Chemistry set for Christmas 1959. It too proved inspirational, and he began a long and happy relationship with the subject. He attended the Tunbridge Wells Technical High School, where he was encouraged to pursue science. He won a scholarship in chemistry and physics to Imperial College London in 1967, and after gaining a PhD, he followed an academic career at the University of London. He is currently an emeritus reader at King's College London and is enjoying retirement in a small village in Cumbria.