'Could we one day control the path of lightning?'

[kalibex]

Professor Roberto Morandotti and his colleagues have discovered a way to guide electric discharges—and even steer them around obstacles—through the clever use of lasers. This scientific breakthrough was published on June 19, 2015, in Science Advances, the new open-access journal from the prestigious editors of the international journal Science.

http://phys.org/news/2015-06-day-path-lightning.html

 

[mkrnhr]

I thought the concept was known for some time (for example: _http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/4/1/361/fulltext/). This time they use different lasers to give a shape to the plasma through which the discharge is directed.
Interestingly, there is already a military application: _http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18630622 although the text focuses on the laser rather than on the discharge that will hit the victim.

 

[MusicMan]

Apart from Benjamin Franklin, who was lucky he wasn't killed doing his experiments, I have seen (many years ago) a TV doco which had scientists generating lightning from clouds by firing rockets into them which were trailing a fine wire.
It worked beautifully.
Their next task was to try to harness 'the beast' which struck and destroyed their launch pad.
I have not heard of any progress in that direction.