Crooked fire
As one of perhaps four dozen scientists in the world who study lightning, Joseph Borovsky, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is happy to admit that lightning isn't well understood. The same admission surfaces in virtually every conversation one has with people who study lightning. This lack of understanding is certainly not from lack of observation, given the long history of human fascination with lightning. Mariners, with masts and antennas poking upward, are justifiably interested in lightning. Lightning-wielding thunder gods are a common feature of any number of religions (Greek, Indian, Chinese, etc.). The Bible is replete with references of lightning as a divine tool. And the Romans even used the relative direction of lightning as a celestial Ouija board. One poses a question and waits for the next…