Science: Just what we need - manmade lightning

Scientists using a mobile laser have triggered the electrical precursors to lightning by aiming them at thunderstorms, a new study reports.

The scientists placed a mobile laser at the top of New Mexico's 10,500-foot South Baldy Peak and shot laser pulses at two passing thunderstorms, generating electrical activity in the clouds.

"This was an important first step toward triggering lightning strikes with laser beams," said study leader Jerome Kasparian of the University of Lyon in France. "It was the first time we generated lightning precursors in a thundercloud."

Xinhua reports that no full-blown lightning strikes stretching from the air to the ground were actually generated in the New Mexico experiment, but it did create "small local discharges" of electricity within the clouds, the researchers report in the journal Optics Express. The work represents a flash forward in manmade lighting.

I am sure this will be of great benefit to mankind and go a long way towards solving the problem of world food shortages.

Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting
Publisher of i On Global Trends and Sydney Irresistible