Since June 1752, almost 271 years ago, the main protection of buildings and their inhabitants against powerful lightning discharges rests on an invention by Benjamin Franklin: the lightning rod. The Boston-born politician and intellectual also demonstrated that clouds are charged with electricity by flying a metal-framed kite with a key attached to it that attracted a discharge. Metal bars on buildings that trap lightning and conduct it to ground to neutralize it have since saved thousands of lives and critical facilities. Nature Photonics publishes this Monday the first significant advance in almost three centuries and successfully to master this force of nature. A total of 28 international researchers have presented the results of a powerful laser capable of deflecting rays into the sky.
