New Scientist
Image: bscoder
Gadget enthusiasts might want to check the weather forecast before venturing outside listening to their MP3 players. Earphones can direct the current from a lightning strike into the head and rupture the eardrums.
Eric Heffernan and colleagues at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada noticed an unusual pattern of burns on a lightning-strike patient they were treating. One long burn stretched up the patient’s chest and neck to each ear, and there was extensive damage to both eardrums (The New England Journal of Medicine, vol 357, p 198). Witnesses say the man was jogging with his iPod.
The medics think that the combination of sweat and metal wiring helped channel the current through the jogger’s ears. Ordinarily lightning only conducts over the outside of the body, due to skin’s high resistance.
