A pattern that looks alive branching across a plank of wood is really a record of electricity solving a maze in real time. Lichtenberg figures form when high voltage is driven across a wood surface coated in a thin electrolyte film, usually water carrying dissolved salts. The science underneath is a feedback loop: • Current flows through the conductive moisture, dissipating energy as heat through resistive (I²R) losses • That heat boils off water and pyrolizes the cellulose and lignin, charring the wood into carbon • Carbon conducts far better than damp wood, so current crowds into the freshly burned track • The charred tip becomes the preferred path, extending the channel and starving its neighbors This is positive feedback made visible. Each branch that carbonizes lowers its own resistance, pulling more current and growing faster, while nearby regions are robbed of the current they would need to compete. The branching geometry is not random decoration. It follows the same mat...