Physics Questions People Ask Fermilab


You Wrote:
I saw a TV show the other day that talked about a persons aura. I read in a book that a persons aura is made up of quarks. The book went on describe how the energy of your aura (quarks) may get stuck on the earth plane when you die and this is the energy that may represent a ghost running around your house. The book (Ghosthunter by Eddie Burks) indicated that quarks could pass through solid items as we understand solidity. It also went on to say that an aura is visible between 380 and 440 millimicrons of the infrared sector of the color spectrum. Has the fermi lab done any studies with auras. Do you think that quarks are what ghosts may be made of.

Martin Leal

Greetings Martin,
First thing: quarks aren't anything special!!! Almost your whole body is made of quarks. Your body is made of chemical molecules, the molecules are made of atoms, the atoms are made of electrons and nuclei, the nuclei are made up of protons and neutrons, and the protons and neutrons are made of quarks. (nobody knows - yet - what quarks are made of!) So, quarks can't pass through matter any more gracefully than your fist can pass through a wall!

Now about "auras". Fermilab does not do any research about "auras" or any supernatural stuff. From what I understand of your description, the "aura" visible in the infra-red sounds a whole lot like "body heat". It's like the heat that you can feel when you hold your hand up close to your cheek (without touching) or the heat that you can feel from a fireplace across the room. It's just low-frequency light given off by warm objects. This has been known to science for a long time, and there is certainly nothing ghostly or magical about it!

keep smiling,

-Bill Foster

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