Shuffling across the carpet to zap a friend may be the oldest trick in the book, but on a deep level that prank still mystifies scientists, even after thousands of years of study. Now Princeton ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When hair picks up an electrostatic charge, the strands repel each other and stand on end. Static electricity is so commonplace ...

LAS VEGAS — Some species of parasitic roundworms can catapult themselves high into the air to latch onto fruit flies and other insects. Experiments now reveal that leaping Steinernema carpocapsae ...

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 ...

FROM THE PINNACLE OF SPOOKY SEASON. YES, ORLANDO SCIENCE CENTER IS HELPING EVERYONE GET INTO THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT ALL MONTH LONG. WESH TWO MARQUISE MEDA BRINGS US TO THE SCIENCE OF IT. WHAT’S ...

Scientists at Northwestern University may have figured out why walking on carpet in your socks, petting your furry friend, or rubbing a balloon on your hair creates static electricity. In a new study, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

Static electricity has puzzled scientists for thousands of years. Above, water ions carry charge between two electrically insulating materials. The blue mesh represents the flow of charge that could ...