Browse Physics

Sand flowing down a rough slope forms eddies–the first example of spontaneous vortices in a granular material.

A new material stretches and contracts in response to light.

A comparison of foams made with two different gases supports a theory on how foam changes over time.

A new technique measures the mechanical properties of cell membranes by watching the motion of small beads attached to 20-micrometer-diameter bubbles of membrane surrounded by a layer of protein.

In the first quantitative study of the jamming of grain hoppers, a team derived a mathematical model that could lead to improved hopper designs.

Two negatively charged beads near a wall in water can attract one another. This surprising result may in some cases be explained by the fluid flow created as they are repelled by the wall.

The puzzling properties of toothpaste-like materials make sense, based on new experiments showing that pastes have much in common with glasses–disordered materials that physicists have been studying for many years.

A set of violently shaken beads exhibits a velocity distribution similar to that of an ideal gas, regardless of the shaking speed, suggesting that a fundamental theory of granular materials may be possible.

A drop of soapy molecules and water can form a rigid gel crystal that displays more facets than any crystal ever observed–a phenomenon called ‘the Devil’s staircase.’