Flying bees electrify the air

A swarm of bees produces an amazing amount of electricity, new research has found. Scientists say the electricity they create could be strong enough to affect the weather. Small electrical charges are everywhere. There are two kinds of charges—positive and negative—and they attract each other. Spiders spin negatively charged webs, which pull in positively charged insects. As honeybees fly, beating their wings more than 200 times per second, they rub against molecules in the air and collect a positive charge, which helps them attract negatively charged pollen. Insects can also pick up electrical charges by landing on charged surfaces. Scientists measure electricity in the atmosphere by calculating the difference between the charge in the air and the charge at the Earth’s surface. This is called the potential gradient. It is…

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The Week Junior US (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 137

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