静电的粘性科学

Scientists have been studying static electricity for centuries, but they’re largely clueless about its origins. A quirky group of scientists is aiming to change that. By Emily Conover Illustration by Simone Noronha G alien Grosjean was a caretaker of tiny glass beads. He bathed them, gently cradled them with tweezers, placed them delicately in his experimental apparatus. He avoided unneeded jostling at all costs: Subtle mishandling could alter the beads’ properties in unknown ways. And, even worse, losing just one could cost him a week’s worth of work. “I tend to be quite clumsy, so I have to fight against my tendencies,” says Grosjean, a physicist then at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg. …