科学英语：未来我们能否控制闪电的路线？.docxVIP

Lightning dart1 across the sky in a flash. And even though we can use lightning rods to increase the probability of it striking at a specific location, its exact path remains2 unpredictable. At a smaller scale, discharges between two electrodes behave in the same manner, streaking3 through space to create electric arcs where only the start and end points are fixed4. How then can we control the current so that it follows a predetermined path? Professor Roberto Morandotti and his colleagues have discovered a way to guide electric discharges--and even steer5 them around obstacles--through the cle