Whenever lightning is about to happen in 128 blocks (64 blocks in Bedrock Edition) around the lightning rod, the lightning strike will be redirected to the rod instead of a random block. This is ...

Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing the lightning rod, and for some 270 years it has remained the main tool for protecting buildings from destructive and potentially deadly thunderbolts. But ...

Brazilian researchers captured on camera the brief moment when lightning rods on buildings released an upward discharge to attract incoming lightning. By Nicholas Bakalar Benjamin Franklin invented ...

Lightning rods have been used to guide lightning strikes for centuries, but now scientists have demonstrated something a bit more advanced than a humble metal stick. Beaming a high-powered laser into ...

Last year marked the 270th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod — but it’s more than a relic of history. The Franklin rod remains in use today because the simple design exploits some ...

A high-speed photo of lightning rods at work during an electrical storm in São José dos Campos, Brazil, is helping scientists understand how the devices compete to attract strikes and keep buildings ...

Ever seen lightning shoot upwards? If not, you’re in luck. Last year, researchers in São José dos Campos, Brazil were able to capture the exact moment that several buildings’ lightning rods reached ...

On Friday, a thunderstorm swept through Maryland and lightning struck the State House in Annapolis. A centuries-old lightning rod, a modern sprinkler system and a local fire department sprung into ...

In a world first, Japanese researchers flew a lightning-proof drone in a thunderstorm, using it to induce and direct natural lightning strikes. The team is now working on how this flying lightning rod ...

Like a high-tech hammer of Thor, a powerful laser can grab hold of a lightning bolt and reroute its path through the sky. In a mountaintop experiment, such a laser bent lightning toward a lightning ...