Celia Jeffery, Author at New ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Science news and science articles from New ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Fri, 02 Apr 1993 23:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 242057827 Letters: Blue flash /article/1828038-letters-blue-flash/?utm_campaign=RSS|NSNS&utm_content=currents&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=NSNS Fri, 02 Apr 1993 23:00:00 +0000 http://mg13818676.800 When opening a piece of junk mail this evening I had the distinct impression
it was about to spontaneously combust in my hand. As I pulled open the flap
of the self-sealing envelope I was astonished to see eerie blue flashes.

In order to further investigate this effect I turned out the light and
continued to open the flap in the dark. The blue flashes were more spectacular,
tinged with yellow at the edges, appearing to come from the glue. I was
so amused by this that I stuck the thing down again and gave a demonstration
to my husband. What causes these flashes? Is it possible, that with the
application of more glue, all junk mail could vanish in a puff of smoke,
preferably before delivery?

Celia Jeffery London

]]> 1828038