... The choice of which type of electricity is called "positive" and which "negative" was made around 1750 by Ben Franklin, early American scientist and man of many talents (the stamp on the left commemorates his role as first US postmaster--and colonial postmaster before that). ... Franklin knew of two types of electric charge, depending on the material one rubbed. ... Later, when electric batteries were discovered, scientists naturally assigned the direction of the flow of current to be from (+) to (-...

... What are those " magnetic storms " which occasionally disturb the Earth's magnetic field? ... Earth's Core . ... The glow followed magnetic field lines (lines of force) and converged near the magnetic poles of the terrella. ... This suggested that somehow, during storms, a large electric current circled the Earth above its equator. ... In space such currents most easily flow along magnetic field lines, because the particles that carry them (mainly electrons) tend to stay attached to such lines. ...

Ice Volcanoes Reshape Europa's Chaotic Surface . Ice-spewing volcanoes and the grinding and tearing of tectonic plates have reshaped the chaotic surface of Jupiter's frozen moon Europa, images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft reveal. ... Although the images do not show currently active ice volcanoes or geysers, they do reveal flows of material on the surface that probably originated from them, said Galileo imaging team member Dr. Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University, Tempe. ... Europa . ...

Cosmic Research, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 435­488. Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 453­508. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Veselovsky, Panasyuk, Avdyushin, Bazilevskaya, Belov, Bogachev, Bogod, Bogomolov, Bothmer, Boyarchuk, Vashenyuk, Vlasov, Gnezdilov, Gorgutsa, Grechnev, Denisov, Dmitriev, Dryer, Yermolaev, Eroshenko, Zherebtsov, Zhitnik, Zhukov, Zastenker, Zelenyi, Zeldovich, Ivanov-Kholodnyi, Ignat'ev, Ishkov, Kolomiytsev, Krasheninnikov, Kudela,