A new study suggests that microscopic lightning bolts—called microlightning—within water droplets may have helped forge the very first amino acids on Earth. The research revives and reimagines one of ...

This is the archetypal lightning bolt, one that arcs out of the sky and smites the ground with a great, often flickering flash of light. Lightning is the sudden release of built-up charge stored ...

When a flash discharged, it made a tiny audible crack as the air heated up. The mini bolts were about a million times less powerful than real lightning, but created a zap with the same light ...