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 ...

The coroner concluded Faherty's death was a case of spontaneous human combustion — a human being catching fire with no apparent cause. Can human ... perhaps due to static electricity — could ...

Lead author Dr Sam England explained: "We knew that many animals naturally accumulate static electricity on their bodies as they move around their environment, and that static electricity can push ...

New research shows that ticks can use static electricity to latch onto people or animals. The study in the journal Current Biology says the static charge given off by potential hosts can attract ...

Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised: Static electricity is a weird phenomenon to begin with, arising from contact between two insulators—materials that don't conduct electricity, but can ...

By contrast, other atoms can attract an electron and become negatively charged (more electrons than protons). This imbalance is what we know as static electricity. Now, let’s take two surfaces ...

Excess static electricity is always a shock to the system—literally—but if you're experiencing shocks more so than not, annoying is an understatement. It can be downright distracting and cause ...

In news absolutely no one wants to hear, scientists have just discovered that ticks can fly short distances through the air, thanks to the gravity-defying forces of static electricity. These ...

“Sliding and shear are intimately connected,” Marks said. Although static electricity can cause funny mishaps, like hair standing on end after going down a playground slide, it also can lead to ...

A bottle can disinfect drinking water by channelling static electricity built up from just 10 minutes of walking – no limited supply of water purification tablets or external power sources required.