Static electricity may seem simple. Students often learn that rubbing a balloon against their hair will cause negatively ...

The original story “ Physicists solved a decades-old mystery about static electricity ” is published in The Brighter Side of ...

Seemingly random charging of identical materials depends on the carbonaceous molecules stuck to their surfaces ...

There’s a shocking lack of understanding of the physics underlying this commonplace phenomenon, but researchers are on the case.

A microscopic layer of environmental carbon solves a long-standing mystery about static electricity's true origins.

The familiar phenomenon has puzzled researchers for centuries, but experiments are finally making sense of its unruly behaviours.

When high-voltage electricity breaks out in open air, it rips through the atmosphere, forming chaotic, branching fingers of electric plasma. These electrical arcs are difficult to control. They branch ...

With their like-sounding names, Bayleigh Hartley and Shayleigh Boring were twin power plants of resourcefulness Thursday ...

Every time you switch on a light or charge a phone, electricity begins a journey that often stretches hundreds of kilometres. The process happens so quickly tha ...

For the first time, scientists have filmed high-speed video of a phenomenon where trees emit an electrical glow by generating sparks during thunderstorms. The results of a study published in ...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the future of artificial intelligence may look much simpler than people expect. Speaking at a ...

Ultraviolet cameras captured faint electrical flashes from leaves and branches as storm charges built up in the atmosphere.