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.

Frying a computer component with static is one of those things that very rarely ever happens. Yet it can happen, as I found out recently through personal experience — when building a new PC, I made a ...

You may think you know static electricity, but its true nature has long eluded scientists. We’ve now made a huge leap towards finally figuring it out ...

But, while static electricity may be cute to think about when petting a cat, sparks can result in industrial fires and explosions. It can also hinder consistent dosing for powdered pharmaceuticals.

MINNEAPOLIS — When someone touches something and gets shocked, it's awkward and a bit painful. What causes static electricity? And what actually happens when you get shocked? Visitors of the ...

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 ...

Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.

If you've ever had a packing peanut stick to your clothes as you unbox your Amazon delivery, then you know that Styrofoam is pretty good at generating static electricity. A new invention turns ...

There’s no doubt static electricity can build up on combines. Here’s what research says about its ability to actually ignite a blaze.

Opinion Static electricity fried my PC when I opened it. Here’s what I did wrong Why you need to take precautions! By Dominic Bayley Australian Editor, PCWorld Jun 13, 2025 3:30 am PDT ...

One such area is static electricity, and the way that it forms within certain materials shows that it can impart a kind of memory to them.

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 ...