Science Magazine (July 15) - Some scientists fear that a coronal mass ejection from the sun could destroy tens to hundreds of transformers, plunging vast portions of entire continents into the dark for weeks or months. Transformer manufacturers say that such fears are overblown, and that most transformers would survive. Thomas Overbye, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois, says nobody knows for sure. “We don’t have a lot of data associated with large storms because they are very rare,” he says.