What is lightning?

#065 Rebroadcast It's Fall! You know why they call Fall Fall? Well because the leaves fall. But before that, the leaves change color. Why do they do that? How? Is there any sort of function to it? Do the different colors mean anything? Let's dive into this overdue, colorful topic ...  Show more

What makes skunk spray smell so astonishingly bad, and why can the odor come roaring back whenever a sprayed dog gets wet? Are humans unusually sensitive to skunk smell? Does tomato juice actually remove it, or have cartoons been lying to us for decades? In this spooky episode, M ...  Show more

In episode 79, we learn about lightning and thunder.  What causes lightning?  How hot is lightning?  Can you have lightning without rain?  Can you have thunder without lightning?  Olivia interviews Greg, a meteorologist, to ask him some questions about lightning and thunder an ...

For millennia, people have been reporting stories of mysterious spheres of light that glow, crackle, and hover eerily during thunderstorms. They’ve been spotted in people’s homes, and are even said to be able to pass through windows. No one knows how ball lightning forms — but th ...  Show more

Why does lightning travel in a zig-zag rather than a straight line?So why does it strike precise points such as the end of a pole? If the average lightning bolt contains up to 1 billion volts, how is it that humans can survive being struck? How many times does the Empire State Bu ...  Show more