The Electric Factory Above Our Heads Thunderstorms often begin to develop early in the day when the sun heats the air near ...

NORFOLK, Va. — Lightning is a common occurrence in Virginia and North Carolina, but have you ever wondered how and why it forms? Think of the formation of lightning as if you are playing with magnets.

Lightning has captivated scientists for centuries, but despite extensive research, the precise atmospheric conditions that trigger a lightning strike within thunderclouds have remained a profound ...

David Pogue is a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on "CBS Sunday Morning," where he's been a correspondent since 2002. Pogue hosts the CBS News podcast "Unsung Science." He's also a New York Times ...

A thunderstorm with cloud to ground lightning rages during the day in China on July 21, 2025. CREDIT: Photo by Liu Wei/Xinhua via Getty Images. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs ...

The collision of two lightning-bolts-in-the-making spawned an exceedingly brief but extremely energetic flash of gamma rays. This first-of-its-kind observation may help explain an origin of some of ...

We know Earth formed roughly 4.54 billion years ago and that the first single cell lifeforms were present roughly 1 billion years after that. What we don’t know is what triggered the process that ...

An artist's rendering of gamma-ray glows observed during the research, with gamma rays colored purple for emphasis NASA / ALOFT mission Two hundred and seventy-two years after that June afternoon when ...