Using a precisely aligned pair of laser beams, scientists can now hold a single aerosol particle in place and monitor how it charges up. The particle’s glow signals each step in its changing ...

Aerosols are tiny droplets or solid particles suspended in the air, and they surround us constantly. Some are large enough to see, such as springtime pollen, while others, like viruses that circulate ...

Physicists have long known how lightning ends, in a blinding discharge that can heat air hotter than the surface of the Sun, but the precise trigger that starts a bolt inside a cloud has remained ...