The Science Times always amazes

Who knew that there was a technical term for the Wint-O-Green-Lifesaver-in-the-dark effect? (It's called triboluminescence, according to this NYT article.) Or that this phenomenon had something important to say about the way things break on a molecular level.

Frankly, I'm more on a level with Father Giambattista Beccaria, who, the article notes, wrote in 1753,

You may, when in the dark, frighten simple people only by chewing lumps of sugar, and, in the meantime, keeping your mouth open, which will appear to them as if full of fire.

Excellent. You can really freak people out by lighting magnesium on fire, too.