Apparently, sometimes lightning comes in ball form, slowly falling out of the sky and exploding on contact. Unsurprisingly, people want to turn lightning balls into weapons. Oh, humanity.

Ball lightning is incredibly rare and hasn't been replicated in a lab, but that didn't stop Dr. Paul Koloc from getting funding from the Missile Defense Agency to research the things. He tried to create "magnetoplasmoids" a foot in diameter, presumably to scare the crap out of people and then kill them.

Said magnetoplasmoids would be shot at speeds of up to 7440MPH from a weapon called the "Phased Hyper-Acceleration for Shock, EMP, and Radiation," or PHASER. Yep.

Unfortunately, while he could create lightning balls up to a foot in diameter, he couldn't keep them stable. But maybe someday he'll figure it out. And that day will be terrifying. [Danger Room]