Scientists shoot lasers into the sky to deflect lightning

Lightning is estimated to cause up to 24,000 deaths globally each year. It starts forest fires, burns buildings and crops, and causes power outages. The best, most practical technology available to deflect lightning is the simple lightning rod, created by Benjamin Franklin over 250 years ago.

"This is the only method that is known to be efficient to protect against lightning," says Aurélien Houard, a physicist at École Polytechnique.

On the surface, this seems great — lightning is dangerous and humanity has lightning rods. But the area that a lightning rod can protect from dangerous strikes is very limited, roughly proportional to the rod height.

So, Aurélien and his multinational team of collaborators are working on a project called Laser Lightning Rod. The initiative is aimed at redirecting lightning using high-power lasers. The researchers hope it will one day be a 21st century alternative to the lightning rod. It's the first time scientists have successfully used lasers for lightning deflection.

To test their laser, researchers first had to identify a lightning prone area. Their target: a telecommunications tower atop a Swiss mountain. The tower is a prime candidate because it is struck by lightning roughly 100 times per year. Next, the team had to spend four months lugging up and assembling all the necessary laser equipment.

In the face of strong wind, rain, power outages and the general limitations of exact lightning strike prediction, researchers pursued their work. In the end, the laser was able to protect a 180 meter radius.

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This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Berly McCoy. It was edited by our supervising producer Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Anil Oza. Gilly Moon was the audio engineer.