Royal Society of Chemistry Hardback English
Luminous Phenomena
A Story of Spontaneous Combustion, Phosphorescence and Other Cold Lights
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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 focusses 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.
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 focusses 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.