I have rarely found editorials to be moving and thought provoking on a literary basis. The New York Times' Behind the Aurora Borealis is so worthy. It is worthy enough to be discussed as an educational piece -- to be used as an example of not just good writing, but as an example of writing that teaches one to stretch his or her imagination, from the clouds to the moon.

When was the last time you thought about the Earth's magnetic field? Or, for that matter, the solar wind? Perhaps now is a good time to do so.

Last year, NASA launched a constellation of five new satellites to investigate substorms -- celestial events caused when the Earth's magnetic field captures energy from the solar wind and then releases it. Data from the satellites and ground observations show that the Earth's magnetic field lines -- stretched well into space by the solar wind -- suddenly snap back into place like giant rubber bands and shower the planet with solar particles. As astronomers have recently reported, that sudden release of energy is what causes the northern lights to flicker and dance.

If you have ever seen the northern lights, you know they cause a wonder that is itself a kind of question. We're used to clouds sliding past on a windy day and the steady, predictable movements of celestial objects. But there is something startling about the aurora borealis, and not least its unpredictability. To see great sinuous sheets of light towering over the dark horizon is to feel that some fundamental force is being illuminated in the most diaphanous of ways. Until now, the cause of the aurora's sudden shifts in mood was unclear. Now we know.

Perhaps it's better simply to say that now astronomers know. What we get to do instead is imagine. The next time you see the northern lights, you'll be able to imagine immense lines of magnetism reaching toward the moon, capturing the solar wind as if they were sails, and then spilling the wind's particles into Earth's atmosphere. What we are seeing, in a sense, is the last iridescence of a particle-breeze blowing outward from the Sun.

"Where do you get your ideas?"

Have you ever heard that question before? Sure. We all have. Quite frankly, I never understood how a writer wannabe could possibly ask such a question -- if you are not chock full of ideas why would you want to write?

Well, while I get plot and story ideas forming in my head constantly, mostly out of the blue, I do get many ideas about aspects of situations and devices from everyday reading (newspapers, magazines, books, the Internet). For example, here is a summary of "various Big Brother gadgets that the government wants to or already has added to surveillance cameras in the UK."