Remember ... my formal education is all in physics ... so I like to keep up with some of the leading edge stuff happening. Just picked this one up off of the phyupdate newslist...
X-RAY THUNDERBOLT. Scientists have long suspected that lightning might generate x rays. However, until recently the observation of such x-rays has remained elusive, largely owing to the unpredictable nature of lightning. In the last few years a series of experiments by Joseph Dwyer and his colleagues at the Florida Institute of Technology and the University of Florida has shown that lightning indeed emits large bursts of x rays with energies up to about 250 keV (about twice that of a chest x ray). These x rays are mostly produced not by the bright return strokes, but by the leaders that precede the stroke, as they propagate from the cloud to the ground. Full Story
So if you happen to have some x-ray film laying around and need free x-ray ... tape the film to your chest, grab something metal that's very long and pointed, and go stand on a golf course during a thunderstorm ... good times, good times. Yes, you may die in the process, but we're talking a free x-ray here folks! ;-)
Comments