The Science of Marvel by Sebastian Alvarado

Author:Sebastian Alvarado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adams Media

THE SCIENCE OF REAL LIFE

What exactly happens if you stand with a hammer under an incoming thunderstorm waiting for lightning to strike? If you are lucky, nothing. Unfortunately, a human does not stand up to the power of a lightning strike the way an Asgardian god does. In the United States, about 10 percent of people struck by lightning die, making up fifty deaths every year. Within the first few milliseconds of being struck, you will likely form third-degree burns at the entry and exit areas of the lightning strike. The heat and flash of lightning can cause blood vessels to rupture, possibly forming Lichtenberg figures along your tissues. Lichtenberg figures trace the path of the electrical discharge as it passes through insulating tissues and look like fernlike patterns on your skin. In addition to superficial damage to tissues, the lightning strike may also disrupt the rhythms of your heart, lungs, and brain. Most deaths caused by lightning are due to cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, and various neurological disorders ranging from mood changes to seizures. The shock wave from lightning will likely burst your eardrums as well as tear your clothes up with a force capable of throwing you away from the shock wave, causing you to suffer from additional fall-related injuries (broken bones, internal hemorrhaging, etc.). Needless to say, you would not look as composed as Chris Hemsworth does when he swings his hammer around.

What about our own ability to generate lightning using human technology? Surprisingly, we have developed tools to control aspects of weather in order to subdue dangerous weather conditions or even as a weapon to attack enemy nations. In order to minimize the hazards posed by cyclones, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has suggested that lasers can be used to discharge lightning from storms that are likely to become hurricanes. In practice this technology relies on using a laser beam to create a “tunnel” of ionized air. This high-energy pulse can shake off electrons in its path, creating a stream of plasma and resulting in a linear path of positively charged air. This path acts like a tunnel to offer a path of least resistance for lightning or a high-voltage source to guide an electrical discharge. Researchers from Teramobile, a collaboration between research institutes in France (CNRS) and Germany (DFG), have put this idea to the test by shooting short laser pulses into the thunder clouds above Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research in New Mexico. Using their mobile laser, this group was able to initiate and record electrical discharges within the synchronized laser pulses. Other approaches include using a rocket attached to a copper wire filament that can be shot into a thunder cloud. Researchers at the University of Florida have used this technique, causing a lightning leader to conduct electricity through the wire filament, exploding the wire and creating a column of ionized air that tunnels remaining lightning strikes. In a similar fashion, the American military has made laser-guided lightning weapons, called laser-induced plasma

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