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Discovery: Beyond The Abyss: Spooklights

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26/12/2011 GMT

Spooklights

Beyond The Abyss

BBC World Service - Discovery, Beyond The Abyss, SpooklightsSearch BBC

Chemist Andrea Sella investigates things that go flash in the dark.

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.

Discovery: Beyond The Abyss

BBC World Service

Meet the new wave of explorers who are are racing to go back to the deepest place on Earth

After more than 50 years, a new wave of explorers are racing to go back to the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on the planet.

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