Why Thunderstorms Are an Amazing Phenomena

Thunderstorms are a phenomena quickly moving into the spotlight of science. Why is that, you ask? People have always felt that thunderstorms were good for the environment and brought cleansing, but now there's scientific evidence to back it up. Not only that, but it has been recently discovered that intense thunderstorms actually produce the most expensive substance on the planet. Platinum? No. It produces antimatter. For those of you who didn't watch enough Star Trek as a child, antimatter is an extremely volatile, immensely powerful substance used to power the space ships of the future. At our current state of technology, antimatter is extremely expensive to produce, so naturally scientists are seeking ways of capturing it from thunderstorms.

This definitely brings a new meaning to mind for the phrase "storm chaser". I can just see groups of scientists scouring the globe in blimps trying to capture antimatter being generated and destroyed from thunderstorms. Though I doubt that it will ever happen, it's fun to imagine. At present, antimatter costs so much to create and is so difficult to store that it's completely unfeasible to use it for anything practically. I'm sure a lot of research is being done to find out if there's any way at all possible to capture the antimatter generated from a bolt of lightning. If that ever happens, I'll be more than a little impressed. But let's move on.

Though your grandparents could have told you a long time ago, it has now been scientifically noted that thunderstorms have some pretty powerful healing properties for the environment. The whole environment is cleansed during a thunderstorm. The main reason for this is because of the different molecules that are created during a thunderstorm, including ozone and hydrogen peroxide. Because of the intensity of the lightning and other factors, hydrogen peroxide molecules and ozone molecules are generated which help to cleanse the environment of disease and also to promote new growth. Most people are unaware that hydrogen peroxide is actually quite beneficial to both the leaves and the root systems of plants, especially developing plants? So a thunderstorm not only cleanses the environment of harmful disease, it also promotes new growth. Perhaps that is the reason that the environment seems so fresh, vibrant, and crisp after a thunderstorm.

But the thing that I find most interesting is that science has actually attempted to duplicate the effects of thunderstorms in a creative way. NASA engineers used thunderstorms as the basis for developing an air purifier technology for use in their space stations. They developed an air purifier technology that utilizes hydrogen peroxide molecules and other molecules generated during a thunderstorm and attempted to magnify the effects to create an air purifier system that completely cleanses the environment of disease and other contaminents and leave the air as permanently fresh and crisp as it is after a really intense thunderstorm. What a cool application of both science and nature. Much of the time, science seems to seek artificial solutions that are distinct from solutions already present in nature. Very rarely do they attempt to mimic the natural. It would make sense to me that NASA needed to develop the very best air purifier out there for use in their space stations. Up in space, air is just about the most precious commodity, and keeping it clean and fresh is definitely a priority, one would think.