Will-o'-the-wisps' mysterious origins explained by chemistry

For hundreds of years, people taking a stroll through a swamp or cemetery at night have witnessed floating balls of flickering blue light appearing suddenly. The inexplicable phenomenon has inspired many a ghost story. Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, recording it for the first time in AD 1340, wrote, “There was in every hollow a hundred wrymouthed wisps.” Though Gwilym called these ethereal lights “corpse candles,” they later took on many names, including jack-o’-lantern, friar’s lantern, and will-o’-the-wisps. Though many different cultures developed their own folklore around will-o’-the-wisps, the strange lights were generally believed to be spirits with ill intent. Scientists have long searched for a scientific explanation for the eerie occurrence but have come up short. They’ve theorized that burning gases produced by organic decomposition produce these otherworldly balls of light but had no idea what was igniting the gases. Now, after hundreds of years of speculation, scientists at Stanford say they have an answer. In a new study, a team of researchers presented evidence that a spontaneous electrical discharge can occur between methane microbubbles rising and bursting in water. The study, published in September in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2521255122), explains how this random electrical discharge, which the scientists dubbed “microlightning,” not only provides an ignition source for will-o’-the-wisps, but is an entirely new form of chemical synthesis. A spark of genius solves will-o’-the-wisp mystery Isaac Newton was one of the first to ponder will-o’-the-wisps’ mysteries: He mentioned them in his 1704