Named after German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Lichtenberg Figures are branching electric discharges that sometimes appear on the surface or in the interior of insulating materials. In plainer terms, it’s the pattern you see in the sky when lightning happens.
And as this video demonstrates, these patterns can be magically recreated in your kitchen. All you need is a little soda or water, some baking soda and a cutting board. You might not want to tear the safety cover off your microwave as science YouTube channel The Q did for this experiment, though.
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The result is a high voltage power source that creates branching patterns in the baking soda solution and burns them onto the wood of the cutting board. But it might be best to leave anything this explosive to the experts. You could either come out of it with a wild Eraserhead style hairdo, or a far worse visit to the emergency room.