Why orange skies fill us with a sense of impending doom
(World News Science)

Smoke pollution makes for an especially red, and sci-fi-looking, sunset over San Francisco. (ead72/Deposit Photos/) Johndan Johnson-Eilola is a professor of communication and media at Clarkson University. This story originally featured on The Conversation. On September 9, many West Coast residents looked out their windows and witnessed a post-apocalyptic landscape: silhouetted cars, buildings and people bathed in an overpowering orange light that looked like a jacked-up sunset. The scientific explanation for what people were seeing was pretty straightforward. On a clear day, the sky owes its blue color to smaller atmospheric particles scattering the relatively short wavelengths of blue light...