Hopefully God doesn't get too offended by the Zeus-like scientists who are diverting lightning strikes with lasers.
Up until now, the usual method of protecting us from lightning is with the use of a lightning rod, also known as Franklin rod or a lightning conductor.
It was invented way back in the 18th century by Benjamin Franklin and consists of a 'pointed conducting mast', which is connected to the ground.
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The age old method manages to protect buildings and surroundings by providing a preferential strike point in the ground for the lightning to hit.
However, researchers have now developed a new method to stop infrastructure sites from being damaged by lightning.
The laser device is about the same size as a large car and is capable of producing up to a thousand pulses per second.
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In the summer of 2021, researchers installed the five tonne device nearby a telecommunications tower in the Swiss Alps that is regularly struck by lightning.
The way it works is that the 'super laser' creates a virtual lightning rod which mimics the metal conductors which are able to intercept flashes and redirect their currents into the ground.
The trillion-Watt laser is the first of its kind and after six hours of being in operation, the device was able to redirect four of the upward lightning discharges.
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"In conclusion, the results of the Säntis experimental campaign in the summer of 2021 provide circumstantial evidence that filaments formed by short and intense laser pulses can guide lightning discharges over considerable distances," the study reads.
"These preliminary results should be confirmed by additional campaigns with new configurations.
"The use of a Franklin rod with a minimum distance from the laser path could increase the probability to guide lightning flashes of both polarities."
Discussing the results, the study adds: "The use of visible laser wavelengths (obtained by second harmonic generation) could also increase the guiding efficiency of the filament.
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"Also note that, based on the results presented in this paper, displacing the onset of filamentation toward charge centres in the cloud might result in an increase in the guiding capability of the laser or even the initiation of lightning discharges.
"This is the subject of future experimental work."
The project was also the first time that a field result has been recorded, as previous attempts of understanding the topic have always been in a lab.
Anish Vij