This is actually really cool. About 200 years ago, people noticed that electrical fields can interact with fire. This makes sense, many compounds are electrically charged; water is negatively charged. (Fun experiment: Run a plastic comb through your hair a few times, and then allow a small stream of water to run out of your faucet. Bring the comb close to, but not touching the stream. The negative charge your hair gave to the comb will move the water without touching it.) Anyway, this due at Harvard figured out how to take that to the extreme. This is a new way to fight fires; by interrupting the chemical reaction by moving the chemicals apart.
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