1 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I am here with the scheduling note. Today's 2 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: episode would normally be a full length core episode of 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:13,320 Speaker 1: the show, but due to a holiday, we are switching 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 1: up the order this week, so there's going to be 5 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:19,080 Speaker 1: a short Artifact episode today and then full length episodes 6 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,079 Speaker 1: will air on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. And 7 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:27,319 Speaker 1: now onto the episode. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: a production of My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is 9 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 1: Joe McCormick, and this is the Artifact, a short form 10 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, 11 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:47,239 Speaker 1: and moments in time. In the year six the English 12 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: philosopher Sir Francis Bacon published a book called Novum Organum, 13 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:55,320 Speaker 1: in which he described a program for investigating the world 14 00:00:55,320 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: through empiricism and organized inductive reasoning. As an example of 15 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 1: how to employ his new method, Bacon discusses at length 16 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: the physical phenomenon of heat, cataloging examples of heat in nature, 17 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: but also what he calls quote proximate instances wanting the 18 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: nature of heat. In other words, situations where other phenomena 19 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 1: observed alongside heat in nature are witnessed but without the heat. 20 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:25,680 Speaker 1: For example, the moon and the stars shine with light 21 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: that's bright like sunlight, but not hot like sunlight, and 22 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: so forth. But here in one paragraph Bacon starts to 23 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: list more anomalous sources of cold light. He mentions a 24 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: kind of light quote which in some well authenticated and 25 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: serious histories is said to have appeared around the head 26 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: and hair of boys and virgins, and instead of burning 27 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: their hair, merely to have played about it. He also 28 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,880 Speaker 1: explains with great confidence that in times of darkness or 29 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: damp weather, a sweaty horse will emit flashes of light. 30 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,080 Speaker 1: He writes, quote, in like manner, sea and salt water 31 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 1: is sometimes found to shine at night when struck violently 32 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: by the ore. The foam of the sea, when agitated 33 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: by tempests, also sparkles at night, and the Spaniards called 34 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: this appearance the sea's lungs. While I don't know what 35 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: to make of the claim that sometimes sweaty horses glow, 36 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: or that the ocean will shine with the slap of 37 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: an oar, there is one claim in this passage that 38 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,960 Speaker 1: sounds just as weird as the rest, and yet it 39 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: is entirely true and exhaustively verified. Bacon writes, quote, it 40 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: is well known that all sugar, whether candied or plain, 41 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:43,119 Speaker 1: if it be hard, will sparkle when broken or scraped 42 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: in the dark. The fact that sugar glows when scraped 43 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: or crushed is now a well documented phenomenon. You might 44 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: have even seen it yourself by smashing wintow green life 45 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:59,440 Speaker 1: savers with a hammer or throwing a bunch of sugar 46 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: cubes in a blender. When you smash the sugar, it 47 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:07,919 Speaker 1: releases pops of ghostly light, often blue in color. This 48 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: phenomenon is an example of what's called tribo luminescence, a 49 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: light that is emitted when certain substances are mechanically stimulated by, 50 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:21,920 Speaker 1: for example, rubbing, crushing, scraping, or tearing apart. Many of 51 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:26,399 Speaker 1: these substances are crystalline in nature, Like sugar, Quartz crystals 52 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,920 Speaker 1: often begin to glow when rubbed together rapidly in a 53 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: darkened room. Several studies on tribo luminescence in quartz mention 54 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:36,040 Speaker 1: a type of artifact used by some of the Ute 55 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: people of Colorado, which was a type of rattle made 56 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: from translucent buffalo rawhide filled with quartz pebbles, which would 57 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: allegedly glow with tribo luminescence when shaken at night, as 58 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: the pebbles inside smashed against one another. But there are 59 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: other stranger sources of tribo luminescence. You can sometimes see 60 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: a rolling line of blue sparks by peeling adhesive tape 61 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: of a roll or peeling an adhesive bandage envelope apart 62 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: in very low light. Despite the fact that tribal luminescence 63 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: has been observed for hundreds or even thousands of years, 64 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: the physical mechanisms leading to the emission of light are 65 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: still not fully understood, and there's no universal theory that 66 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: explains all instances, but we know some things. Tribal luminescence 67 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: seems to be especially common in crystals with an asymmetric structure. 68 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:31,120 Speaker 1: A common explanation given is that when the crystals are fractured, 69 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: many electrons are actually ripped away from their atomic nuclei, 70 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: generating an electrical field. The electric charge difference is neutralized 71 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: when these free electrons eventually rejoin with atoms across the 72 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: fracture gap, leading to the emission of light. In some cases, 73 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: tribal luminescence seems to depend on the gases surrounding the material. 74 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: The familiar blue glow of crushed sugar can be turned 75 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 1: red if you do the crushing in a sealed container 76 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,359 Speaker 1: filled with neon gass, indicating that the blue light in 77 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 1: this case has to do with the emission spectra of 78 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: the nitrogen that makes up most of our air. So 79 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: when sugar glows blue, the blue light is probably caused 80 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: when nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere are excited by electrical 81 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: discharge from the cracking sugar crystals. As the nitrogen atoms 82 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 1: fall back down to their ground state, they emit photons 83 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,599 Speaker 1: at frequencies that include some visible blue light, almost like 84 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: lightning in the cracks of the candy. And before I finish, 85 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: I want to say, if anyone has any insight on 86 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:41,520 Speaker 1: the glowing sweaty horse, you have our email address. Tune 87 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: into new editions of the artifact every Wednesday, hosted either 88 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 1: by Robert or myself. As always, you can email us 89 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. 90 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind and is a production of 91 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit 92 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 93 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:07,839 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.