An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:
"So the lightning that you see, out and about, when you're looking at thunderstorms and things like that, is build up of charge usually up in the clouds or in storm cells, and all that's happening is that that charge is just trying to ground itself. And so the charge will become bigger and bigger and bigger and it will just overcome the insulation of the air and it will just connect to ground and try to equalise that charge out. …
But you can also get cloud to cloud lightning, which is where the lightning is just, rather than going to ground, it's trying to equalise itself with another pocket of charge in a cloud that might be closer, so the lightning is travelling sideways, in a way…
It just trying to find a connection to ground, so, clouds, they're several kilometres up in the sky, and if you are that far away from something that you want to connect with, it's going to spread itself out"
Dr Daniel Mitchard (Senior Lecturer, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University) was talking on an episode ('The Shock Factor') of the BBC Radio 4 programme/podcast 'Curious Cases'.
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