[waspguy]

On a quick read:

Basic understanding of the Electric force says that it simply has a radial component - no angular dependence. (It only pushes or pulls along the line separating the two charges.)

This result would seem to indictate that there is a (as yet unknown) component of electricity which causes things to want to rotate around some axis as well.

My gut feeling is to be pretty sceptical. My first objection is a symetry objection - how would the charge be able to decide which axis to rotate around? There would have to be some prefered directionality in space-time for this to be true, and that's not observed in other places.

On the other hand, we have no idea why electron's exhibit magnetic moments and have an associated "spin". If there is some effect like this - then the electron (and proton) spin might necessarily follow.

(Interesting side note - neutrons have spin and yet are electrically neutral. I've seen this attributed to the magnetic moments of the constituent quarks - I wonder if there's a way to test the new model via this mechanism?)

Ah well - I think I'll wait for other verification. If true this is certainly unexpected.

[templar]

There would have to be some prefered directionality in space-time for this to be true, and that's not observed in other places.

What, exactly, would a preferred direction in space-time consist of, and how would it be measured?

[John Locke]

There would have to be some prefered directionality in space-time for this to be true, and that's not observed in other places.

My feeling also. Of course, there is a preferred directionality in a terrestrial laboratory, thanks to the Earth's rotation and magnetic field. That would be my first suspect if things start mysteriously to spin.