PHOTO: © JEFF SMITH/ALAMY
Lightning storms are fantastic examples of the power of nature, but also extremely damaging. They can destroy buildings, create power surges, are a major cause of forest fires, and make golfers abandon their games to seek shelter. Using light pulses fired from a powerful laser, Scheller et al. demonstrate the possibility of taming this wild force of nature. In a lab-based experiment, intense pulses of light vaporized a column of air and created a conducting filament of electrons that then acted as a lightning rod to channel the electrical discharge to ground. Scaling up this approach could enable the control of lightning strikes.
Optica 10.1364/OPTICA.1.000125 (2014).
