We've created ball lightning in the lab — and briefly trapped it.

A study from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, CAS has created ball lightning in the lab — and briefly trapped it.

It's tiny. It lasts only a fraction of a second. But it reveals something big: ball lightning may be a self‑sustaining electromagnetic wave — an "energy structure" that holds itself together in space.

The 200‑year mystery isn't fully solved. But for the first time, it is experimentally within reach.