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Electricity

Hammarby Sjöstad was originally engineered to have a carbon footprint 50 percent lower than the rest of Stockholm.

This Stockholm Neighborhood Was Built on Ambitious Sustainability Goals. When It Came Up Short, It Doubled Down and Became a Blueprint for Others

The original plan for Hammarby Sjöstad was for an eco-village aimed at attracting the Olympics. They never came, but the locals moved in and, with upgrades, hope to be carbon neutral by 2030

A violent, swirling storm on Jupiter captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft

Lightning Strikes on Jupiter Are 100 Times as Powerful as Those on Earth, a New Study Suggests

Scientists finally have a clearer picture of the gas giant’s intense storms

Touch screens can be a challenge for users with long fingernails.

A New Nail Polish Might Someday Solve Touch Screen Struggles for Users With Long Fingernails

The experimental coating could effectively transform fingernails into touch screen-compatible styluses

The researchers used sound waves to levitate tiny glass spheres as part of their study. 

Scientists Make a Major Breakthrough in Solving a Hair-Raising Mystery About Static Electricity

The findings can help explain the physics behind phenomena like volcanic lightning

In laboratory studies, coronae emit a faint blue light from the tips of spruce needles. In nature, ambient light drowns out this glow, so researchers used a special camera to detect invisible, ultraviolet emissions. 

Treetops Emit Ultraviolet Sparkles During Thunderstorms. Researchers Just Filmed It in Nature for the First Time

The weather events probably cause the air around leaves to produce weak electrical discharges

Students with the 4-H Club of Dauphin County gathered inside the refrigerated display room at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center to carefully break down the sculpture.

What Happened to This 1,000-Pound Butter Sculpture After the Crowds Melted Away?

At the end of the 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show, volunteers and students carefully dismantled the creamy masterpiece so it could be used to produce renewable energy for local homes

Did Benjamin Franklin really fly a kite in a thunderstorm?

America's 250th Anniversary

What’s the Real Story With Ben Franklin and the Kite? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

Mars regularly experiences dust storms, like this one captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2012. Scientists say they found evidence of "mini lightning" during some of these storms.

Scientists Say These Small Electrical Discharges May Be the First Direct Evidence of Lightning on Mars

Rather than big bolts of lightning as seen on Earth, NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded audio of small zaps similar to those from static electricity

Pigeons can sense magnetic fields via their inner ears, new research suggests.

Pigeons Rely on the Earth’s Magnetic Field to Navigate. Now, Researchers May Have Uncovered How They Do It

The vestibular system, a set of structures in the inner ears that helps with balance, may grant the birds their special ability

Cameras captured nematodes attaching themselves to electrically charged fruit flies. 

These Parasitic Worms Use Static Electricity to Hitch a Ride on Flies

The tiny experiment yielded big results, showing how nematodes hop onto fruit fly hosts

Nobel Committee member Göran Johansson explains elements of quantum mechanics during a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 7 in Stockholm.

Three Scientists Receive Nobel Prize in Physics for Pioneering Work That Put Quantum Mechanics on a ‘Human Scale’

The trio’s research in the 1980s demonstrated a bizarre quantum phenomenon in a way people could see and hold

The researchers captured "microlightning" as they bubbled methane and air through water.

What Actually Sparks Will-o’-the-Wisps? A New Study Traces the Science Behind the Mysterious, Wandering Lights

The ghostly phenomenon could be the product of a chemical reaction involving methane, researchers suggest

A coronal mass ejection erupts from the sun in 2013.

How Prepared Are We for a Rare and Powerful Solar Event?

A coronal mass ejection could knock out power and disrupt communication on Earth

A solar flare with the Earth for scale.

Solar Flares May Be Way Hotter Than Researchers Previously Thought

Scientists recalculated the temperature of solar flares using modern data and new models

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of extreme solar activity on May 10, 2024.

The U.S. Ran Its First Space Weather Preparedness Drill—Here’s How It Went

Ironically, the exercise last May was interrupted by a real scenario, when Earth was hit by the strongest solar storm in two decades

Mourning doves, European starlings, crows and other common backyard species have been found dead on a residential street in Richmond, California, in recent months.

Birds Are Dying Mysterious, Violent Deaths in This Northern California Neighborhood—and No One Can Explain Why

Residents of Richmond, a city in the Bay Area, say they have watched dozens of birds drop dead in recent months

Mainstream providers of shared mobility — such as e-scooters, bicycles and rideshares — often overlook marginalised communities, families and the elderly. NGOs and public agencies are filling the gap.

Making Ride Hailing, Bike Shares and Other Transportation Options Accessible to All

Shared mobility is good for the environment, but not equal opportunity. What can be done to make travel easier for everyone?

Current experiments are focused on tomatoes, lettuce and other small-scale crops, with hopes to extend to high-calorie crops like grains and sweet potatoes in the future. 

Can Electro-Agriculture Revolutionize the Way We Grow Food?

A new technology is pushing the boundaries of farming by using electricity to grow crops without photosynthesis

These four lightbulbs augured a future with nuclear power.

On This Day in History

On This Day in 1951, Four Illuminated Lightbulbs in Idaho Were Evidence of the First Time a Nuclear Power Plant Generated Electricity

Although it was just a byproduct of developing a new type of reactor, the generation of electricity from nuclear energy signaled a bright future ahead

A nuclear-powered car lined with lead and other materials to protect its passengers from radiation would weigh at least 50 tons—more than 25 times as heavy as the average vehicle.

Visions of Nuclear-Powered Cars Captivated Cold War America, but the Technology Never Really Worked

From the Ford Nucleon to the Studebaker-Packard Astral, these vehicles failed to progress past the prototype stage in the 1950s and 1960s

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