New way of thinking about electrons could change the Future, scientists say

Scientists have found that inside some materials, in extreme conditions, electricity behaves in highly unusual ways. The electrons stop being independent particles and begin moving together. They flow around edges with uncanny precision. Most of all, the particles seem split up into pieces, each apparently carrying a fraction of an electron’s charge.

This marks a shift in how some people are thinking about electrons — a way that could, someday, change the future.

For most of the last two centuries, we have not had to think much about electricity. At the start of this period, we were just beginning to understand what it was. And towards the end, climate change and renewable energy has rendered it a constant thought in our minds.

But for many decades in between, we could take it for granted. Electricity, most of the time, was just something behind a switch. If you flipped the switch, electrons would move through a wire. If you raised the voltage, more current would flow.