Static electricity often just seems like an everyday annoyance when a wool sweater crackles as you pull it off, or when a doorknob delivers an unexpected zap. Regardless, the phenomenon is much more ...

In this quick science demo, I show how to turn dish soap, water, and a straw into bubbles you can actually control. I walk ...

Scientists developed a new model, which shows that rubbing two objects together produces static electricity, or triboelectricity, by bending the tiny protrusions on the surface of materials. Most ...

Nearly every electric motor in modern life, from the fan on your desk to the motor in an electric vehicle, relies on ...

Researchers have engineered an electrostatic face mask that can 'self-charge' through the user's breathing and continuously replenish its electrostatic charge as the user wears and breathes through ...

Static electricity—specifically the triboelectric effect, aka contact electrification—is ubiquitous in our daily lives, found in such things as a balloon rubbed against one’s hair or styrofoam packing ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a honeybee. In many ways, your world is small. Your four delicate wings, each less than a centimeter ...

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Scientists at the City University of Hong Kong have used a Teflon-coated surface and a phenomenon called triboelectricity to generate a charge from raindrops. “Here we develop a device to harvest ...

As far as everyday, invisible forces go, static electricity doesn't get the respect of magnetism or gravity. But static electricity has a a hidden advantage to help make up the slack. It is very good ...