When 17th century Japanese princess Shinanomiya Tsuneko took note of an afternoon storm in her diary one humid Kyoto summer, she could not have imagined her observations would one day help resolve a longstanding scientific conundrum. Statistical analysis of her journals has revealed a link between lightning strikes and the solar wind – proving that your teenage diary could contain good scien ...[Read More]
GeoSciences Column: Don’t throw out that diary – medieval journals reveal the secret of lightning
‘Lightning Below the Summit’, 36 Views of Mt Fuji, Hokusai c. 1830 (Wikimedia Commons)