***Electrosolvation** Experimental setup and procedure for pair-potential measurements. (Courtesy: Rep. Prog. Phys.*) Two particles carrying electrical charge with the same sign should not attract each other, but in recent years, researchers have found that they can do this when they are dispersed in a liquid. A team at the University of Oxford in the UK has now discovered that the distance over which this counterintuitive “electrosolvation” force acts is much longer than theoretical models currently predict. They have also shown that the range of the force can depend on particle properties such as size and surface chemistry. “The new finding reveals a missing piece in our understanding of electrostatic forces in liquids,” says physical chemist Madhavi Krishnan, who led this research study.…