ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025
Unveiling ignis fatuus: Microlightning between microbubbles.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Accelerated Chemistry in Microdroplets.Accounts of chemical research · 2026Article
- Making connections: teaching and learning bioelectrochemistry.Journal of biological inorganic chemistry : JBIC : a publication of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry · 2026Review
- Unveiling ignis fatuus: Microlightning between microbubbles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Will-o'-the-wisps, ghostly blue flames seen at night in marshlands and long attributed to methane cool flames, have remained scientifically unexplained, a mystery caused by the lack of a known ignition mechanism. Here, we demonstrate that spontaneous electrical discharges, termed "microlightning", can occur between rising methane-containing microbubbles in water. High-speed optical imaging reveals brief flashes between charged bubbles, arising from strong electric fields at curved gas-liquid interfaces. These discharges initiate nonthermal oxidation of methane, producing luminescence and measurable heat under ambient conditions. Our findings offer a scientific basis for ignis fatuus and reveal a general mechanism by which electrified interfaces can drive redox reactions in natural environments without the need for external ignition sources.
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Registered trials
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