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All of that electricity in a thunderstorm. All that lightning, all those kilojoules of power, just waiting to be harnessed, if only we knew how do it! Could we really harness the electricity from lightning?
Continue reading… “Will we ever be able to harness the power of lightning?”
Using a custom-built camera the size of a refrigerator, Florida researchers have made the world s first crude pictures of X-rays streaming from a stroke of lightning
It might look like an homage to the iconic 80s gameshow Blockbusters hosted by Bob Holness. But this crude image is actually the world’s first picture of X-rays streaming from a bolt of lightning.
Continue reading… “First Ever Image of X-rays Around a Bolt of Lightning Captured by Scientists”
“Hygroelectricity,” meaning “humid electricity” could be the next big power source.
We’re already making great strides at pulling electricity from the motion of the air and from the photons that stream through it, but what about pulling electric charges right out of the air itself? Researchers have solved a mystery about how electricity forms in the atmosphere, and in doing so may have found a way to pull electricity right out of the air.
Continue reading… “Next Big Power Source? Pulling Electricity Out of Thin Air”
As part of a four-year study, scientists in northern Japan have been bombarding a variety of mushrooms in lab-based garden plots with artificially induced lightning to see if electricity actually makes the fungi multiply…
In the last ten years, Brazil has been the target of an estimated 57 million lightning strikes–the most in the world. This astonishing natural record is not without a human toll, however. During that same period, 1,321 people have been fallen victim to lightning in Brazil alone, and scientists fear that incidents will only increase in the coming years. As if the long term threats of climate change were not enough to arouse concern, new research reveals that rising temperatures may increase the frequency of the sometimes fatal lightning strikes.
Mother Nature can be both deadly and beautiful at the same time. Nothing illustrates this better than a lightning storm. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Spectacular Photos of Lightning”
Most photographers do not feel comfortable in taking photographs in bad weather. Yet bad weather sometimes presents the perfect opportunity to get most out of our skills. In particular, in the beginning of autumn rain can provide the perfect opportunity to capture wonderful photos. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Amazing Examples of Rain Photography”
Few sights in nature can compare to the sheer magnificence of a volcano erupting in full flow.
But while scenes of molten lava are relatively commonplace, this otherworldly picture of Chaiten Volcano in southern Chile shows a truly spectacular, and devastating, volcanic phenomenon.
Continue reading… “Lightning Storm Vs the Volcano (Pics)”
A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm. At the top of South Baldy Peak in New Mexico during two passing thunderstorms, the researchers used laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity. No air-to-ground lightning was triggered because the filaments were too short-lived, but the laser pulses generated discharges in the thunderclouds themselves up to several meters long.
Continue reading… “Laser Used to Trigger Lightning in a Thunderstorm”
