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 ...

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

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

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 ...

Static electricity is an imbalance in the amount of positive and negative charges found with in the surface of an object. The sudden flow of static electricity or Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can ...

Ancient Greeks discovered that when animal fur and amber were rubbed together, the fur could be used to attract feathers, glass dust and other lightweight objects. It wasn’t until 1600 AD, however, ...