Scientists from the University of Southampton fully charged a Nokia Lumia 925 in a matter of seconds by using lightning.

Scientists from the University of Southampton fully charged a Nokia Lumia 925 in a matter of seconds.

What could possibly charge a smartphone that quickly, you wonder?

The electrical source was plain, old lightning – well, actually, an artificial, lab-generated version of it.

Regardless, it was engineered to have the same heat and light power as Mother Nature’s version, but behave more predictably and be able to be controlled.

To create the phone charger they used an alternating current, a transformer, 200 thousand volts of electricity, a 12-inch air gap, and a second transformer.

Reportedly, what the team was most impressed by was how quickly the phone’s circuitry reined in the erratic signal and sucked up the power.

The eventual applications, though, are hoped to be much greater than just being able to charge phones in a hurry.

One of the scientists said, "This discovery proves devices can be charged with a current that passes through the air, and is a huge step towards understanding a natural power like lightning and harnessing its energy.

Cool as it was, they specifically asked that no one try to recreate the experiment at home or, even worse, attempt to use actual lightning.