Nonsense, say scientists shown videos of kids lighting up bulbs with their touch

Dr Y Purushotham, senior scientist at C-MET, said it is not scientifically possible for anyone to generate enough power to light up a bulb and junked the video as a hoax. 
Sameer and Sania place electrical bulbs on their noses to lit them up. (Photo | EPS)
Sameer and Sania place electrical bulbs on their noses to lit them up. (Photo | EPS)

HYDERABAD:  A couple of days ago, a video of two Telangana children lighting up a LED bulb with just a touch and without any power source went viral on social media.

The video also showed elders from the children's family, who hail from Adilabad's Sirisana village in Bela Mandal, lighting up the bulb by touching it to their nose, forehead and ears. This left many netizens flabbergasted. 

However, these are not isolated cases and there are many videos on the internet, wherein people light up bulbs with their bare touch.

Last year, a similar video of a boy from Alapuzha in Kerala lighting up a LED bulb with his touch went viral and the story was widely reported. 

However, the scientific community in Hyderabad is not amused. Scientists from the Telangana Academy of Sciences revealed that none of them believed that the children could light up bulbs with just their touch. A few scientists Express spoke to suggested that first it should be verified in person if the children can really light up bulbs with their touch and if it is found to be true, then some studies can be undertaken as to what might be causing it. 

Distinguished scientist and former president of Telangana Academy of Sciences(TAS), Dr Ch Mohan Rao, who had earlier headed the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), told Express, "It is scientifically impossible for a person to create voltage or generate electricity enough to light up a bulb. In our body, there are neurons which produce emf/voltage but it will be as low as 60millivolt, which can never light up a bulb." 


He added, "The lighting up of LED bulbs on touch by the children has no scientific validity unless it is based on wireless power transmission through a Tesla coil. If there is a Tesla coil somewhere nearby which can transmit electricity to anybody and they hold the lamp in their hand, it will glow. There should be a coil nearby." 

Dr Y Purushotham, senior scientist at the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) and Honorary Treasurer of TAS, also said that it is not scientifically possible for anyone to be able to generate enough power to light up a bulb and junked the video as a hoax. 

One website, www.hoaxorfact.com, which attempted to debunk the video of the boy from Kerala lighting up a LED bulb with his touch might offer some solace for the scientifically inquisitive minds. 

It theorised: "Technology today is so advanced that we now have a variety of rechargeable LED bulbs with different features. What you see in the video is most probably an LED Light Bulb (and Emergency Light) with Intelligent Finger touch Switch. The video below shows and explains how a charged Magic LED Bulb can glow when in touch with water or wet hands. The next video shows a Rechargeable LED Bulb cum Emergency Light glowing when you touch both the leads. Rechargeable LED bulbs will have a storage battery inside that gets to work and light them up."

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