Earthquake lights: UFOs, can't you see?

Earthquake lights are luminous occurrences that are occasionally seen before large earthquakes. I've written about some recent, scientifically responsible work on the subject. But the UFO paradigm has a firm hold on the public. When England experienced a magnitude-5 earthquake two days ago, just days after a UFO sighting in the English Channel, the UFOlogists were quick to declare a connection. This is not new. In 2005 not long after the Sumatra earthquake, India Daily issued a sober, crackpot editorial on the subject of earthquake lights. They're caused by extraterrestrial UFOs. UFOs clearly have two levels of protection, India Daily says. "The earthquakes cause the neutralizing of the outer layer and thus expose the inner level of electromagnetic shield. That shield glows and the light is known as the earthquake lights."

Notice how easy it is to create an explanation without saying anything that is testable. Notice how easily lights in the sky have become "unidentified flying objects" just by assigning them a name. That is a pre-scientific viewpoint at work. A school of philosophy-of-science pioneered in the early 1960s by Thomas Kuhn holds that what we see is influenced, possibly even determined, by what we believe. Distinguishing what we believe from what we know is the root of science's relentless skepticism, and the key to its progress. That's also the key to dealing with UFO stories.

Thanks to the Marcianitos Verdes site for nice but unauthorized Spanish translation of this post.