On June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin made a famous kite flight in a thunderstorm, allowing it to be struck by lightning and collecting the resulting electric charge in a Leyden jar, proving the electrical nature of lightning. Franklin's demonstration was one of many in his innovative life, and has capture popular imagination like little else. The experiment not only made for an iconic image of early scientific exploration, it helped jump-start investigations into electricity, leading humanity down a path that would fundamentally alter the way it interacts with itself and the world, for good and for ill.

This week's Throwback Thursdays features a talk from 2015 by UMN Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Peter J. Seiler on uninhabited aerial vehicles (popularly known as drones), another technological leap forward whose long-term effects are as yet unknown. Looking at UAVs from an engineering and design perspective as well as examining some of the potential benefits and drawbacks of rapidly incorporating this technology into our lives, Seiler and a panel of experts in the field provide a look at what may eventually be regarded as another "kite in a thunderstorm" for human technological capability.