The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a honeybee. In many ways, your world is small. Your four delicate wings, each less than a centimeter ...

This familiar phenomenon has puzzled researchers for centuries, but experiments are finally making sense of its unruly ...

A nematode (C. elegans) jumps onto a bumblebee along an electrical field to hitch a ride. Credit: Chiba et al., 2023 Japanese scientists working with nematodes (C. elegans) noticed one day that ...

While it may be an unfamiliar sensation to humans, electroreception is relatively commonplace in the animal kingdom. Sharks, bees and even the platypus all share this ability to detect electric fields ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

In the home, the lab and the factory, electric fields control technologies such as Kindle displays, medical diagnostic tests and devices that purify cancer drugs. In an electric field, anything with ...