VIKING berserkers were said to have taken hallucinogenic mushrooms to help whip themselves into a frenzy before battle. They certainly wouldn’t have needed them to see trippy light patterns in the sky.
In Earth’s polar regions – such as here, in Nordland county, Norway – natural light shows occur when charged particles from space surge into the high atmosphere and collide with atoms. The result is the famous Northern Lights, or aurora borealis.
If the light is red, you know nitrogen atoms have been zapped. But usually the light is green, which means oxygen atoms 80 kilometres above ground are emitting photons…
