Even scientists have a sense of humor
A couple of physicists in Italy have developed an explanation for poltergeist activity, which suspiciously always seems to happen around children; it has to do with quantum mechanics and the chemical changes that occur in the brain around the time of puberty:
Brovetto and Maxia hypothesise that the changes in the brain that occur at puberty involve fluctuations in electron activity that, in rare cases, can create disturbances up to a few metres around the outside of the brain.
These disturbances would be similar in character to the quantum mechanical fluctuations that physicists believe occur in the vacuum, in which "virtual" particle and antiparticle pairs pop up for a fleeting moment, before annihilating and disappearing again.
Brovetto and Maxia believe that the extra fluctuations triggered by the pubescent brain would substantially enhance the presence of the virtual particles surrounding the person. This could slowly increase the pressure of air around them, moving objects and even sending them hurtling across the room.
The poltergeist paper will appear in the journal Neuroquantology.
We contacted Brian Josephson, a Nobel laureate physicist who is on the editorial board of Neuroquantology.
"This looks distinctly flaky to me," Josephson commented.
Indeed. Be sure to read the comments at the end of that article.