你或许还记得因为害怕静电而不敢触碰金属把手.尽管泰勒斯在公元前600年就已观测到静电，但它的产生机制一直悬而未决.近年来，一些研究部分揭示了静电的深层产生机制，是由材料在纳米尺度下的突起变形引起的.这一进步将为许多静电相关的应用带来巨大的机会，意味着人类掌握了将静电化敌为友的关键.

You might remember that you hesitated to grab a knob in fear of the static electricity. Although static electricity was observed by Thales in B.C.600, its mechanisms had been elusive for several thousand years. In recently years, this seemingly impregnable mystery has been partially unraveled by several researches showing that static electricity is caused by the deformation of protrusion on materials at the nanoscale. This one step forward in understanding electrostatics will bring vast opportunities in a number of applications. Now we human beings hold the key to turning electrostatics from a foe into friend.