Browse Physics

A simple robot demonstrates the timing and motion necessary to make the highest jumps, with parallels to human jumping.

Some ecological communities may be acutely sensitive to the survival of certain key species, thanks to the details of the species’ interdependence, according to simulations.

Researchers find the source of an epidemic using relatively little information. Their technique could also help authorities track down contamination in water systems or locate problems in electrical grids.

Salt crystallizing on walls or old artifacts forms in discrete bunches, rather than coating the surface, because of an unexpected feedback effect, according to experiments and simulations.

A new model explains how subterranean ice can grow into large sheets that lift the earth and damage roads and buildings.

The complex topography of a crumpled piece of paper has only two basic types of regions, and they can be combined to build up the whole surface, according to calculations.

Foraging animals or other randomly moving entities can more easily avoid each other by taking more long-distance jumps, according to theoretical results, which may also apply to epidemics and database searches.

A mathematical model for swarming locusts suggests that their random direction switches occur after small errors of many individuals add up to a large effect.

With an array of water-activated levers, researchers demonstrate the first mechanical medium where waves travel in only one direction.

A disk of living tissue forms surprising shapes if its circumference grows faster than its diameter, according to a mathematical analysis.

The rotational flow of fluid in a heated tank containing some heavy beads periodically reverses direction, mimicking some aspects of the motion of Earth’s continents over geologic time.

A new technique generates movies of a thermal explosion in progress and may lead to better explosives safety.

Computer simulations suggest that a perfect crystal spontaneously melts when atoms move cooperatively. The process may occur in melting under extreme conditions.

A new technique can detect when electromagnetic waves moving through dense materials exhibit extreme changes in their behavior. It could help with surveying of geological structures or possibly scanning human bodies.

Computer simulations reveal an underlying structure for the disordered state of a large number of spheres dumped into a box.

A theory predicts when a sieve will block particles smaller than its holes and could apply to a variety of natural and artificial filters.

A new technique tracks the motion of water molecules through pores in rocks, which could help in oil prospecting.

Researchers have created spiky ice formations in the lab for the first time. They form naturally on glaciers where they may help preserve the ice.

A magnetic field can sustain a single, isolated hump on the surface of a magnetic fluid–a new type of solitary feature with parallels in heated fluids and shaking beds of sand.

The furniture in a cluttered room allows two wireless signals to be transmitted simultaneously to different locations using the same frequency.