Let there be lightning

摘要

Greg leyh spends his daylight hours at one of the world's top particle smashers, helping to coax matter and antimatter particles to fly in orderly lines at just a whisker off the speed of light. By night, he likes to generate lightning bolts, the bigger the better. With giant coils charged up to millions of volts, he rips the night air apart with dazzling forks of light - for no other reason, really, than the pure drama of it all. Watching lightning crackle out from the coils is "a very spinal experience", Leyh says. "Many people describe it as primal," he says. "When it first starts, it's more visually alluring than anything else, then the arcs grow bigger and bigger, reaching out and striking like a snake. And then, somehow, it turns from allure to fear."