How volcanic lightning is helping to demystify the Earth's plasmasphere
Thursday, July 2, 2015 - 06:00
in Physics & Chemistry
At the height of the First World War, in the trenches, German physicist Heinrich Barkhausen was eavesdropping on Allied telephone conversations. Every now and again, the Allied communications were drowned out by some strange sounds. The soldiers dubbed them "whistlers" because they sounded similar to shells flying overhead.