Abstract: 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.

Key words: static electricity; triboelectric effect; energy harvesting