© 2025 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

The spooky science of will-o'-the-wisps, mysterious microlightning in the swamp

Picture this: You’re in a marsh, and it’s getting dark. You’re all alone in the murky water, or so you think, until you glimpse on the horizon a flickering blue flame. You think you’re imagining things, but there it is again: a spark of ghostly light, shining through the reeds.

These apparitions are known as will-o’-the-wisps, an unexplained natural phenomenon that legend says are the spirits of those who died in the swamp.

But Stanford University’s Richard Zare thinks he may have solved that mystery, and shares his glimpse beyond the veil with Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2025 WBUR

Here & Now Newsroom
Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.