X-Message-Number: 1984
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 93 12:58:23 CST
From: Brian Wowk <>
Subject: CRYONICS Blue Flashes

+Mike Dawin (and Perry Metzger):
 
>      Also, Russian researchers have reported flashes of blue light being 
> emitted from fracturing solutions at cryogenic temperatures.  I understand 
> that the temperature of these flashes is high.
 
        Light emitted by certain fracturing crystals is called 
triboluminescence.  Like Perry, I too believe that this phenonmenon only 
occurs in certain types of organized crystals with trace impurity atoms 
or "color centers." (I have been told, but have not observed, that 
peppermint lifesaver candies emit faint blue light when shattered by a 
hammer in the dark.)
 
        More ominous (and perhaps likely) possibilities for the 
cryogenic light flashes are triboelectrification (static discharge) or 
highly localized frictional heating.  Microscopic hot spots as high as 
2000'C are known to occur in many frictional interactions.
 
                                                --- Brian Wowk

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