X-Message-Number: 1976 Subject: CRYONICS: flashes of light Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1993 21:18:05 -0500 From: "Perry E. Metzger" <> > From: Mike Darwin <> > > I have been very busy lately and thus unable to participate in the > discussion of this (or for that matter any other) topic on the net. I am > dog-sitting even as I write this (that's good news cause it means the dog > lived!). Good news, Mike; I trust we will here reports on this sometime soon. However, I thought I might shed some flashes of light on another topic... > 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. Just so you know, I have vague memories that is a well known phenomenon that crystals under various kinds of stresses will emit flashes of light while fracturing under the right circumstances. Anyway, I forget the name of the phenomenon and its cause, but if people are sufficiently interested I will look it up. (I suspect, by the way, that in spite of the fact that the light is blueish that it does not truly reflect a high temperature as blueish "black-body" radiation would.) One disturbing thing is I recall that the phenomenon only happens for reasonably well organized crystaline structures -- not for glasses, which is what we presume a bulk solution of cryoprotectants and water near the glass transition point would be. Anyway, as I've said, if there is interest I will look this up. Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1976