Light Facts

With two forks and a charge, a pickle will emit light.

Electric lights for Christmas trees were first used in 1882, when Thomas Edison's business partner Edward H. Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue bulbs and strung them around a rotating tree in his New York City home.

Blue eyes are the most sensitive to light, dark brown the least sensitive.

A chicken will lay bigger and stronger eggs if you change the lighting in such a way as to make them think a day is 28 hours long!

In 1999, Harvard physicist Lene Hau was able to slow down light to 17 meters per second and in 2001, was able to stop light completely.

Scientists at Zhejiang University in China developed an ultra-light material known as carbon aerogel, with a density of just 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeter—one-sixth the density of air.

MIT has developed a camera that captures the speed of light at a trillion frames per second.

During photosynthesis, plants emit light humans can’t see, but NASA can see that light from space - and they've even made maps of it!

Goldfish lose their color if kept in dim light or placed in running water like a stream. Their pigmentation depends on light exposure and calm, stable environments.

Reindeer are among the few mammals that can see ultraviolet light, an adaptation that helps them survive in the Arctic.

Between 18-35% of people sneeze when exposed to bright light, especially sunlight. This is called the photic sneeze reflex, and it's caused by crossed signals between the trigeminal nerve (which controls sneezing) and the optic nerve.

It takes a photon around 100,000 years to travel from the core of the Sun to its surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to Earth.