I proved you can't make Mayo if a thunderstorm is threatening.

[SRoper]

I'm rather skeptical of the "positive and negative charges" theory.

Why? If the air is somewhat more highly ionized than normal, if there are reactions going on in the mayo (proto-mayo?) that involve ion exchange, you certainly can have an impact on the process...

I agree. Protein emulsion is dependent on the negative charge of certain amide groups that are chemically reduced. A heavily charge atmosphere can really mess it up.

I used to run into a similar problem in experiments with protein on colloids (basically, I was analyzing what happened to manure in soil, if you really want to know). The emulsions sometimes wouldn't form if there was a big thunderstorm out.

I have no doubt that applying an electric field would effect the process; I was just questioning whether the electric field inside a house during a thunderstorm would have any measurable effect.