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 ...

Zaps of static electricity are commonplace in everyday life. But can static electricity give enough of a jolt to start a fire? Static electricity is the result of an imbalance between negative and ...

Add some spook to your science with these Halloween STEM activities guaranteed to mesmerize your little goblins and ghouls.

Incredibly, for the first time, scientists have unraveled the mechanisms at play when rubbing a surface creates an electrical current, something that was first recorded in 600 BCE yet not fully ...

The first documentation of static electricity dates back to 600 BCE. Even after 2,600 years’ worth of tiny shocks, however, researchers couldn’t fully explain how rubbing two objects together causes ...

Static electricity was first observed in 600 B.C., but researchers have struggled to explain how rubbing causes it. In 2019, researchers discovered nanosized surface deformations at play. The same ...

James Gibert, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Hongcheng Tao, postdoctoral researcher, observe their test apparatus as it generates an electric charge by rubbing two surfaces ...

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Ticks are annoying. They can latch onto a host, suck up blood and leave Lyme disease behind... but how do they get on their host in the first place? Researchers at the University ...

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even butterflies and moths do it. As lepidopterans flutter their wings, friction with the air causes them to accumulate static electricity — enough to potentially pull pollen ...

The fracturing and friction of coffee beans during grinding generates electricity that causes coffee particles to clump together and stick to the grinder. Researchers report that coffee beans with ...

Rub a balloon on your hair and the balloon typically picks up a negative electric charge, while your hair goes positive. But a new study shows that the charge an object picks up can depend on its ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...