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You might want to leave the lights on tonight; scientists say ghosts can exist. Theorists predict conditions to create a so-called ghost molecule-a single atom with electron density that resembles that of unusual two-atom molecules ( Phys. Rev. Lett. 2018, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.113203).

Besides expanding chemists' understanding of chemical bonding, these oddities could serve as components of quantum computers, if researchers can find a way to make them.

These ghosts resemble trilobite molecules, which Chris H. Greene of Purdue University and colleagues predicted in 2000. The trilobites consist of a Rydberg atom-one in which electrons are in very high energy states-and a second atom whose presence causes the Rydberg atom's energy levels to mix together to create an unusual pattern of electron density that looks like a fossilized trilobite. Researchers at the University of Oklahoma made a trilobite molecule from cesium atoms in 2015.

Greene's group is now predicting that the same effect can be achieved using an excited hydrogen atom and a sequence of electric and magnetic field pulses to perturb its energy levels. Because there is no second, ground-state atom, the team calls the effect a "ghost bond" or "ghost molecule."

Through computational simulations, they predict the resulting trilobite-like electron density would last several milliseconds at 10 K. Like with non-ghost trilobite molecules, these densities would be large-as much as 2,500 angstroms long-and have permanent dipole moments on the order of 1,000 Debye.

Harvard University theoretical physicist Hossein Sadeghpour, who first predicted the existence of trilobite molecules with Greene, says "it will take awhile" to make the ghost version, but he thinks it is possible. He and Greene agree detecting them may be as hard as making them because it is difficult to image these high energy states. Greene proposes using electron momentum spectroscopy or X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, but he thinks it could be a stretch even for those techniques.

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You might want to leave the lights on tonight; scientists say ghosts can exist. Theorists predict conditions to create a so-called ghost molecule-a single atom with electron density that resembles that of unusual two-atom molecules ( Phys. Rev. Lett. 2018, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.113203).

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alien A non-native organism. (in astronomy) Life on or from a distant world.

colleague Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

culture (n. in social science) The sum total of typical behaviors and social practices of a related group of people (such as a tribe or nation). Their culture includes their beliefs, values and the symbols that they accept and/or use. Culture is passed on from generation to generation through learning. Scientists once thought culture to be exclusive to humans. Now they recognize some other animals show signs of culture as well, including dolphins and primates.

engineering The field of research that uses math and science to solve practical problems.

environment The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).

field An area of study, as in: Her field of research was biology. Also a term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.

hallucination A term for seeing, hearing or experiencing things that do not exist. It can occur when the brain tries to make sense of stimuli it received from various sensory organs. It can also be a side effect of some types of disease or mental illness.

inattentional blindness The brain's ability to ignore things occurring right before your eyes as an individual focuses intently on something else, also within the field of view.

information (as opposed to data) Facts provided or trends learned about something or someone, often as a result of studying data.

mentor An individual who lends his or her experience to advise someone starting out in a field. In science, teachers or researchers often mentor students or younger scientists by helping them to refine their research questions. Mentors also can offer feedback on how young investigators prepare to conduct research or interpret their data.

neuroscientist Someone who studies the structure or function of the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

paranormal An adjective meaning supernatural or not explainable by science. Examples include ghosts, demons, telekinesis and clairvoyance.

pareidolia The phenomenon where people see a a pattern or meaning where none really exists. One example: Seeing a face when when you look at the moon. The craters that give rise to the "features" are in fact randomly placed.

perception The state of being aware of something - or the process of becoming aware of something - through use of the senses.

phenomenon Something that is surprising or unusual.

physical science Fields of science (such as chemistry, physics and materials science) that deal with laws of nature and the physical attributes of systems, such as color, temperatures, winds, electricity, magnetism, speeds, energy, mass, chemical reactions, changes of state (such as solids turning into liquids or gases), and forces (such as gravity).

psychology (adj. psychological ) The study of the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behavior. To do this, some perform research using animals. Scientists and mental-health professionals who work in this field are known as psychologists.

random Something that occurs haphazardly or without reason, based on no intention or purpose.

range The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal's range is the area over which it naturally exists.

recall (in cognition) To remember.

risk The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard - or peril - itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

sequence The precise order of related things within some series.

skeptical Not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations.

sleep paralysis A condition that happens when the brain fails to fall asleep or wake up completely. A person in this state feels awake, but cannot move, and may hallucinate.

supernatural Something that is attributed to unnatural forces, such as gods or ghosts.

survey To view, examine, measure or evaluate something, often land or broad aspects of a landscape. (with people) To ask questions that glean data on the opinions, practices (such as dining or sleeping habits), knowledge or skills of a broad range of people. Researchers select the number and types of people questioned in hopes that the answers these individuals give will be representative of others who are their age, belong to the same ethnic group or live in the same region. (n.) The list of questions that will be offered to glean those data.

temporoparietal junction A region of the brain that integrates a lot of sensory information to help the body make sense of itself in terms of its surroundings. It plays a role in giving attention to details - and to spotting things that seem unusual or to deviate from the expected.

United Kingdom Land encompassing the four "countries" of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. More than 80 percent of the United Kingdom's inhabitants live in England. Many people - including U.K. residents - argue whether the United Kingdom is a country or instead a confederation of four separate countries. The United Nations and most foreign governments treat the United Kingdom as a single nation.

Wales One of the three components of Great Britain (the other two being England and Scotland. It's also part of the United Kingdom (whose other members include England, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

Western (n. the West) An adjectivedescribing nations in Western Europe and North America (from Mexico northward). These nations tend to be fairly industrialized and to share generally similar lifestyles; levels of economic development (incomes); and attitudes toward work, education, social issues and government.

working memory The ability to hold something in the mind for a short period of time and to adapt it for use, such as hearing a sequence of numbers, then reciting them backwards.

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One in five Americans say they've encountered a ghost. But science has no evidence that ghosts are real. Here are more likely explanations.

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Haunted Heartland: The Sallie House in Atchison, KS

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Pet owners say they feel presence of their deceased furry friends

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Shadyside resident Estelle Meyer says she has two pets.

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Do you love a haunted house or a good ghost story? Just in time for spooky season, the website SlotSource.com has issued a spine-tingling report on the most haunted states in America. Compiled using findings from Ghosts of America, the list ranks the states that are home to the scariest hauntings and most phantasmagoric happenings in the country.

Coming in at the top of the list is Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas-even the ghost sightings-which is probably why the Lone Star State was named the most haunted state in America. In fact, its residents have witnessed a whopping 6,845 paranormal activitiessince 2005. California is second on the list, with 6,444 reports since 2005. Ohio comes in third with 2,555 sightings.

So what makes a place haunted? "You'll see unexplained shadows or movements in the side-vision of your eyes, or soft whispers of a conversation near you and no one is there," the Psychic Medium Sisters tell SlotSource. Other telltale signs: cold spots, creepy sensations or the feeling that you're being watched.

Ghosts don't float your boat? Then the place for you is Delaware, which came in last on the list, thanks to the fewest apparitions in the United states.

Here, we take a look at the top 10 scariest states and some of the spookiest highlights. Spoiler alert: If you want to sleep easy tonight, stop reading now.
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1. Texas: Texas tops the list of the most haunted state in America. After all, this is the home of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and locations like Marfa. Way out west in the middle of nowhere, this tumbleweed town has a reputation for its cool art scene and the mysterious Marfa Lights. People started spotting these unexplained colorful glowing orbs back in the 19th century.

2. California: Second on the list of most haunted places, California is known for superstars and supernatural occurrences-especially at places like Eureka's Fort Humboldt State Historic Park. Here, hikers report seeing the ghost of a dead commander staring at them through the hospital windows.

Spooky Spot: You could say that the city of angels is also the city of ghosts. Los Angeles is a hotbed of spookiness, the most star-studded being Hollywood's Hotel Roosevelt, where former guests Marilyn Monroe and actor Montgomery Cliff still hang around the property.
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3. Ohio: Third on the list, Ohio is rife with paranormal stories, from the Twin City Opera House in the tiny town of McConnelsville-where something hides behind the curtains-to Mansfield's Ohio State Reformatory, which hosts regular ghost hunts and was the setting for the Shawshank Redemption.

Most Haunted Hotel: Newbury's Punderson Manor used to be an estate in the 19th century and later became a girls' camp. These days, the hotel looks welcoming enough with its Tudor mansion and hillside cabins. But it's so haunted that psychic mediums and paranormal experts often visit to investigate the otherworldly happenings.

Spooky Spot: Part of an island chain in Lake Michigan, South Manitou Island has beautiful dunes and legends of dead sailors who were buried alive and still haunt the place.

Most Haunted Hotel: Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel is known for its front porch-the world's longest-and its ghostly guests. Keep an eye out for a man in a top hat who likes to play the piano in the bar or a woman in Victorian clothing who sometimes climbs into people's beds.

5. Illinois: There's been plenty of strange and unexplained phenomena in the Prairie State, which is why Illinois ranked fifth on the list.

Spooky Spot: Do you love a road trip? How about a haunted road trip? This route is only for the most daring, going from Bloods Point Cemetery near Rockford to the haunted Cahokia Mounds way south of Springfield.

Most Haunted Hotel: It is said that the gangster Al Capone haunts Chicago's Congress Plaza Hotel, but he's not the scariest permanent resident. Staffers often report sightings of a 6-year-old boy whose mother threw him out of a 12th story window. And in Room 441, a female ghost kicks guests while they're sleeping.

6. Indiana: The Hoosier state is known for corn, basketball-and hauntings.

Spooky Spot: Don't like ghosts? You might want to avoid Indiana University in Bloomington. The campus is crawling with paranormal activity, from the Career Center, where babies are sometimes heard crying, to the Indiana Memorial Union, which is haunted by a ghostly dog.

Most Haunted Hotel: Spas, golf courses...and ghosts? French Lick Springs Hotel is a resort getaway that is haunted by its founder, Thomas Taggart, who still enjoys soaking in the property's onsite mineral springs and likes to hold parties in an empty ballroom. Housekeepers also find blood in a bathtub where a jilted bride took her life.

7. Pennsylvania: You might want to call it "Paranormal Pennsylvania." This state has lots of terrifying tales, from Eastern State Penitentiary-which celebrates its checkered past with tours by day or (for the really daring) by night-to the Hell's Hollow Wildlife Adventure Trail, which is as scary as its name would suggest.

Most Haunted Hotel: In the charming town of New Hope, the Logan Inn has been creeping out its guests since 1722. The spookiest room is Number 6, where you can often smell the lavender perfume worn by the mother of a former owner and hear crying at night.

8. Oklahoma: This state's spooky side includes haunted military forts, Big Foot sightings and a demon calledZozo.

Spooky Spot: It has been said that Guthrie-one of the oldest towns in the state-is the spookiest place in Oklahoma. There are at least eight haunted locations, from the Stone Lion Inn, inhabited by the spirit of an 8-year-old girl, to the Blue Bell, a onetime bordello where the former madame and some of her clients still make their presence known.

Most Haunted Hotel: The Skirvin Hilton Hotel is not only the oldest hotel in Oklahoma City, it's also a place where its ghosts are said to have caused basketball teams, including the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls, to lose games.

9. New York: When you think "haunted," the Headless Horseman-who roamed the Hudson Valley searching for his head-immediately springs to mind. But that was just a made-up character. The Empire State has many real ghosts to discover.

Spooky Spot: You can't get away from ghosts in New York-especially in Manhattan. Some visitors to the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights claim that they see strange things and hear voices. And then there's the House of Death at 14 West 10th Street, where Mark Twain once lived and documented supernatural experiences. Twain still roams the place, along with 21 other ghosts.

Most Haunted Hotel: Lake George's Sagamore hotel has been a favorite vacation spot since it was built in 1883; so it's no wonder spirits continue to lurk here, including a silver-haired woman wearing a polka-dot dress and ghostly children who are sometimes spotted on the golf course.

10. Virginia: Given Virginia's rich past, it figures that the state would have a ghostly present.

Most Haunted Hotel: One of the most elegant hotels in Hunt Country, the Black Horse Inn used to be a Civil War hospital. Today's guests report visions of wounded soldiers and even a laughing nurse wandering through the hotel.
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... Read More

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10 Most Haunted States In America (You Won't Believe The Scariest)

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Do you love a haunted house or a good ghost story? Just in time for spooky season, the website SlotSource.com has issued a spine-tingling report on the most haunted states in America. Compiled using findings from Ghosts of America, the list ranks the states that are home to the scariest hauntings and most phantasmagoric happenings in the country.

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Ghosts are everywhere-yet nowhere. Cultures all around the world believe in spirits that survive death to dwell in another realm. In fact, ghosts are among the most widely believed of paranormal phenomena: Millions of people are interested in ghosts, and a 2019 Ipsos/YouGov poll found that 45% of Americans say that ghosts "definitely or probably exist."

The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is ancient, and appears in countless stories from the Bible to Macbeth. It even spawned a folklore genre: ghost stories. Belief in ghosts is part of a larger web of related paranormal beliefs, including near-death experience, life after death, and spirit communication. Such beliefs offer many people comfort - who doesn't want to believe that our departed loved ones are looking out for us, or with us in times of need?

Many people have tried to-or claimed to-communicate with spirits over the centuries; in Victorian England, for example, it was fashionable for upper-crust ladies to hold séances in their parlors after tea with friends. So-called "Ghost Clubs" dedicated to searching for ghostly evidence formed at prestigious universities including Cambridge and Oxford, and in 1882 the most prominent such organization, the Society for Psychical Research, was established. Eleanor Sidgwick was an investigator (and later president) of that group, and could be considered the world's first female ghostbuster. Meanwhile across the pond during the late 1800s, many American psychics claimed to speak to the dead - and were exposed as frauds by skeptical investigators such as Harry Price and Harry Houdini.

Despite these early, sporadic spirit investigation attempts, it wasn't until recently that ghost hunting became a widespread interest around the world. Much of this is due to the popular TV series Ghost Hunters, which ended thirteen seasons without finding good evidence for ghosts. The show spawned dozens of spinoffs and imitators, and it's not hard to see why the show was so popular: the premise is that anyone can look for ghosts. The two original stars were ordinary guys (plumbers, in fact) who decided to look for evidence of spirits. Their message: You don't need to be an egghead scientist-or even have any training in science or investigation-to look for ghosts: All you need is some free time, a dark place, and a few cameras and gadgets. If you look long enough (and your threshold of evidence is low enough) any "unexplained" light or noise could be evidence of ghosts.

Scientifically evaluating ghosts is problematic for several reasons, including that surprisingly diverse phenomena are attributed to ghosts. To one person a door closing on its own is a sign of a ghost, while for others it may be missing keys, a faint scent, a cold area in a home, or even a dream about a dead friend. When sociologists Dennis and Michele Waskul interviewed ghost experiencers for their 2016 book Ghostly Encounters: The Hauntings of Everyday Life (Temple University Press) they found that "many participants were not sure that they had encountered a ghost and remained uncertain that such phenomena were even possible, simply because they did not see something that approximated the conventional image of a 'ghost.' Instead, many of our respondents were simply convinced that they had experienced something uncanny - something inexplicable, extraordinary, mysterious, or eerie." Because of this, many people claiming to have had a ghostly experience didn't necessarily see anything that most people would recognize as a classic "ghost." In fact they may have had totally different experiences whose only common factor is that it was not easily explained.

Ghost research is greatly complicated by the fact that there's no consensus about what a ghost is-even among ghost hunters and "experts." Some believe, for example, that ghosts are spirits of the dead who get "lost" on their way to "the other side"; others are sure that ghosts are instead telepathic entities projected into the world, or strong emotions somehow recorded and later "replayed" in the environment (often called "stone tape theory"). Still others create their own categories for different types of ghosts, such as poltergeists, residual hauntings, intelligent spirits and shadow people. It's a fun exercise in fantasy, but of course it's all made up, like speculating on different types of dragons; there are as many types of ghosts as you want there to be.

There are many contradictions inherent in ideas about ghosts. For example, are ghosts material or not? Either they can move through walls and solid objects without disturbing them, or they can slam doors shut and throw objects across a room. According to logic (not to mention the laws of physics), it's one or the other. If ghosts are human souls, why do they appear clothed and with inanimate objects such as hats and dresses - not to mention the many reports of ghost trains, cars, and carriages? If instead ghosts are the result of unavenged deaths, why are there unsolved murders, since ghosts are said to communicate with psychic mediums, and should be able to identify their killers for the police. And so on - just about any claim about ghosts raises logical reasons to doubt it.

Ghost hunters use many creative (and dubious) methods to detect ghostly presences, including psychics. Most ghost hunters claim to be scientific and give that appearance because they use high-tech scientific equipment such as Geiger counters, Electromagnetic Field detectors, and infrared cameras. Yet none of this equipment has ever been shown to actually detect ghosts. Centuries ago people believed that flames turned blue in the presence of ghosts. Few people today believe that bit of ghostlore, but it's likely that many of the signs taken as evidence by modern ghost hunters will be seen as just as silly and quaint centuries from now.

Many ghost hunters claim that ghosts haven't been proven real because we don't yet have the right technology to detect the spirit world. But this, too, can't be true: Either ghosts exist and appear in our ordinary physical world and visible spectrum (and can therefore be detected and recorded in photographs, film, and video), or they don't. If ghosts exist and can be scientifically detected or recorded, then we should find hard evidence of that-yet we don't. If ghosts exist but cannot be scientifically recorded, then that means that all the photos, videos, audio and other recordings claimed to be ghosts are not in fact ghosts. With so many contradictions - and so little science brought to bear - it's not surprising that despite the efforts of thousands of ghost hunters for decades, no hard evidence of ghosts has been found.

Much of the belief in ghosts comes not only from television shows but some personal experience. Maybe the person grew up in a home where the presence of a spirit was taken for granted. Maybe they had some unnerving experience on a ghost tour or at a local haunt. But still, they believe, science has offered a logical, physical rationale for ghosts. It is widely claimed that Albert Einstein himself proved the possibility of ghosts with his First Law of Thermodynamics: if energy cannot be created or destroyed but only change form, then what happens to our body's energy when we die? Could that somehow reappear as a ghost?

The idea seems superficially reasonable-unless you understand basic physics. The answer is simple and not at all mysterious. After a person dies, the body's energy goes where all organisms' energy goes after death: into the environment. The energy is released in the form of heat, and the body is transferred into the animals that eat us (i.e., wild animals if unburied, or worms if we are interred, or heat if we're cremated), and the plants that absorb us. There is no bodily "energy" that survives death.

While legions of amateur ghost hunters imagine (and portray) themselves as on the cutting edge of ghost research, they are engaging in what folklorists call ostension or legend tripping, a form of playacting in which people "act out" an existing narrative or legend, often involving ghosts or supernatural elements. In his book Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live (University Press of Mississippi, 2003) folklorist Bill Ellis notes that ghost hunters take the search seriously and "venture out to challenge supernatural beings, confront them in consciously dramatized form, then return to safety. ... The stated purpose of such activities is not entertainment but a sincere effort to test and define boundaries of the 'real' world." It's a fun and fascinating hobby, but not investigation or research.

In the end, it doesn't matter what all the scientists, skeptics, and ghost hunters think. If ghosts are real, and are some sort of as-yet-unknown energy, then their existence will (like all other scientific findings) sooner or later be discovered and verified by scientists through controlled experiments - not by weekend ghost hunters wandering around abandoned houses late at night with cameras and flashlights.

Despite mountains of ambiguous photos, sounds, and videos, the evidence for ghosts is no better today than it was a year ago, a decade ago, or a century ago. There are two possible reasons for the failure of ghost hunters to find good evidence of their quarry. The first is that ghosts don't exist, and that reports of ghosts can be explained by psychology, misperceptions, mistakes, and hoaxes. The second option is that ghosts do exist, but that ghost hunters are simply incompetent and need to bring more scientific rigor to the search, because what they've done so far has clearly failed. Ghost hunting is not really about the evidence (if it was, the search would have been abandoned long ago). Instead, it's about having fun with friends, telling spooky stories, and the enjoyment of pretending they're searching the edge of the unknown. After all, everyone loves a good ghost story.

For more on ghosts and ghost investigation see my award-winning book Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits!

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The Science (and Non-Science) of Ghosts | Center for Inquiry

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Ghosts are everywhere-yet nowhere. Cultures all around the world believe in spirits that survive death to dwell in another realm. In fact, ghosts are among the most widely believed of paranormal phenomena: Millions of people are interested in ghosts, and a 2019 Ipsos/YouGov poll found that 45% o ...

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Top 10 Most Terrifying Ghost Sightings in Britain

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The Haunted Halls Of Waverly Hills Hospital

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Are Ghosts Real? — Evidence Has Not Materialized

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One difficulty in scientifically evaluating is ghost are real is the surprisingly wide variety of phenomena attributed to ghosts.

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This book was really good al tho it said that ghost are real and every thing i knda think that they are and kinda dont i mean like how it said in the book they could have made a smug in the camra lens

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This book was really good al tho it said that ghost are real and every thing i knda think that they are and kinda dont i mean like how it said in the book they could have made a smug in the camra lens

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