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Ball lightning

Ball lightning

Mar 27th 2008
From The Economist print edition

ON A stormy summer's day in the middle of the 18th century a physicist called Georg Richmann had an unfortunate encounter with a rare force of nature. He had set up a rod in his home in St Petersburg to study lightning strikes, but he got more than he bargained for when a pale blue ball of fire emerged from the rod and struck him in the head.…

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