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.

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

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

But if these solid particles have the same composition, what factor causes the charge to flow in a given direction? In a new study published in Nature, physicists from the Institute of Science and ...

A growing body of research is shifting how scientists explain static electricity, pointing to surface contamination and contact history rather than the inherent properties of materials as the primary ...

If you’ve ever felt a shock after rubbing your hair with a balloon or shuffling across a carpet, you’ll know that static electricity can be a real pain. But for the scientists who study it, the pain ...

When particles in volcanic ash cloud rub together, some pick up positive charge and others negative – now physicists have ...

Learn more about the nearly invisible layer of carbon that may control how dust grains become electrically charged and how ...