Evil Geniuses Outside of Socorro?
Mike Smith
in Daily Strange
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On April 14th 2008 a team of European scientists gathered on top of South Baldy Peak near Socorro to engage in an experiment fit for only comic-book villains. Their plan? Firing a one trillion watt laser into a storm cloud in an attempt to control lightning itself.
Insert mad cackle here?
Currently scientists trigger lightning strikes by firing a rocket attached to a long wire into a storm-cloud, a la Benjamin Franklin and his kite, but this only works about half the time. Using lasers will make the process quicker, more cost-effective, and considerably more awesome.
The pulse lasers work by forming large numbers of plasma filaments, the same technology used in novelty plasma lamps, to can conduct electricity towards the ground and cause lightning to strike.
No actual ground to air lightning was produced because the filaments died away too quickly but the experiment was deemed a success in spite of this because an increase in electrical activity was measured where the laser was aimed.
The team believes that they will succeed in the future and are planning on increasing the laser's power by a factor of ten and using more sophisticated pulse sequences in their next test.
One thing still left up in the air is whether this technology, once perfected, will be used towards the good of mankind or to enslave us all. I, for one, am leaning towards the former.
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Reader Comments (3)
(And Megan's was excellent as well.)
This is an awesome story, though I can totally see this being one of those Einsteinian If-I-had-known-my-ideas-would-have-led-to-this-I-would-have-been-a-shoemaker sorts of things that we'll no doubt contemplate in a very grim future in which everyone does what they're told and everyone's top fear is lightning.
The Future:
2015: World War III
2016: In the wake of the world war, helmet-like metal hats become very popular.
2017: Military scientists perfect man-made lightning as a weapon.
2019: Despite it not being an election year, radio show host Glenn Beck is elected President of the United States in a landslide vote. The final tally: 99% for, 1% fried by lightning.
2020: Sadly, the last remaining manufacturer of metal hats declares bankruptcy.
Again, great post. Thanks for finding and writing that.
I love this phrase --- I think its the "considerably more awesome" part that gets well-meaning scientists into these catastrophic messes in the first place.
Great post!
"this technology ... will be used towards the good of mankind or to enslave us all".
So true! And, why is it that the former, always seems to get used to justify the latter?!!
Mike, you forgot:
2018: Yalana wisely abandons her idea, to found an organization called "The Lady's In Tinfoil Hats", as a replacement to "The Lady's In Red Hats", who all suddenly moved to Mars to escape the coming Beckien Era.
;-)