Blogs / Discoblog

I think it’s reasonable to assume that ever since the dawn of humankind, people have yearned to control lightning. (No, Halle Berry did not create this idea for her role in X-Men.) The first approach—rain dances, spells, and the like—proved marginally effective, at best, but there wasn’t much of an alternative. In the ’70s, scientists found out that if they launched rockets carrying long metal wires into thunderstorms, the wires would sometimes provide enough conductance to coax a lightning strike, much like Ben Franklin’s (probably apocryphal) kite string. But around the same time, they also thought it would be much, much cooler to use a laser to bring about lightning. Most things are cooler when accomplished by lasers, as any scientist can tell you.

A group of European researchers working at South Baldy Peak have finally realized this longstanding goal by successfully bringing about lightning by zapping lasers into thunderclouds in a recent experiment. The ultrashort laser bursts (only around a hundred femtoseconds) ionize some of the molecules in the air, forming a plasma, and these channels of plasma act can guide lightning strikes like the wires on a rocket. (more…)

We here at DiscoBlog would like to introduce the Weekly Science Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the best news from around the sci-blogosphere. Here are some links for this week:

• A group of Japanese researchers discovers that daisies may contain a chemical cocktail that lowers triglycerides in mice. Watch for The Daisy Diet to hit shelves soon.

• If Tom Cruise came out, would it put a dent in homophobia? Perhaps, according to new research showing that exposure to celebrities identified as gay or lesbian decreased the test subjects’ bias.

• Finnish glass plant specializes in making drinking glasses out of recycled beer bottles. The real trick? They’ve never been crushed.

• Discovery of ancient human feces in Oregon cave results in samples of the oldest DNA ever found in the Americas.

• Five of the biggest technological inventions in the history of music.

The last time you were in an airport, did you feel your heart rate jump at the sight of vigilant German Shepherds sniffing your bags? While your suitcase may have been entirely contraband-free, the idea that smells, often uncontrollable and undetectable to the human nose, can reveal secrets about you is enough to make even a seasoned traveler nervous.

Use of odor detection by law enforcement is on the rise, as defense attorney and surveillance expert Amber Marks writes in the Guardian. For police forces worldwide, smells are being increasingly relied on to detect drugs, weapons, and stolen goods. A smell alone, in the U.K. at least, can even be considered sufficient evidence to convict someone of a crime. Meanwhile, the technology of smell detection is rushing to meet tightened security needs: canine trainers are teaching dogs to sniff out emotions such as guilt and fear, while electronic noses can now be programmed to identify the “odor signature” of different races or ethnic groups. (more…)