DARK SUCKERS

A few leading scientists have come up with a new theory that is sending shock waves through the world of physics. Ever since Benjamin Franklin -- and maybe before -- people have believed that light emitted outward and replaced the emptiness we call darkness. Today this old theory is in question.

According to some researchers the sources of light -- the sun, candles, light bulbs -- actually suck dark in. In enlightened circles light bulbs are more accurately called dark suckers. Behind this scientific breakthrough lie some shocking facts.

Dark is stronger than light. Place a candle in a dark room. When it sucks all the dark it can hold, it goes out. The dark is stronger.

The evidence that the candle was sucking dark is that the wick, once white, turns black. All the dark sucked in left its mark. Even when a candle is burning, you can put a pencil over the flame and it will make a dark spot on it!

Light bulbs operate in the same way. Once they suck all the dark they can hold, they go out. You can see the dark spot left on the bulb as proof that it's full. Larger dark suckers in parking lights, or massive ones in stadiums have a much greater capacity, but once full they leave large dark spots as evidence of the superior strength of darkness.

Dark is heavier than light. It has mass. The rush of dark into a candle or light bulb generates heat. Don't touch an operating dark sucker or the friction of the dark speeding past will burn your finger.

It is quite obvious to any swimmer with a mask and fins that dark sinks and light rises. As you swim deeper, the dark is much more dense until at about 50 or 75 feet all the light has floated up above the dark.

Dark is faster than light. Slip your hand through a cracked door into a closed-up garage and flip on the dark-sucker. The dark is so fast that it's impossible to see it enter the dark-sucker. Or stand in a bright room and slowly open a closet door. You can see the closet slowly illuminate, but the dark disappears with such speed that you are unaware that it is rushing into the dark-sucker behind you.