When we take a stroll on the beach, we walk on the sand without any trouble. The sand appears solid and is difficult to compress. When we put the same sand grains in an hourglass, they behave very ...

Scientists discovered that rice behaves in a highly unusual way: it weakens under rapid compression but stays stronger when pressure is applied slowly. Using this effect, they engineered a new ...

Rice is one of the world's most important food crops, feeding billions of people every day. But scientists have now ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Sand is one type of granular system – hundreds of grains act collectively. Nenov/Moment via Getty Images Did you eat cereal this ...

Editor’s note: The following research is among the many talks that scientists from UChicago and its affiliated laboratories will present Feb. 13-17 at the annual meeting of the American Association ...

Architecture is a conservative discipline, not least because of the exacting standards of stability and safety that all human-made structures must adhere to. The forces acting on and within any ...

Understanding the way a wave moves through granular materials—after an earthquake, for example—has vast implications for modern science. After all, scientists use stress wave propagation through ...

Slip sliding away: illustration based on false-colour image of sheared grains and sound waves. (Courtesy: Ted Brzinski) A new experiment has revealed how sheared granular materials emit sound waves ...

Granular materials and fine powders are used across various industrial processes and applications. To optimize and control processing methods, these materials have to be characterized precisely.

Examples of granular matter: multicolored plastic balls in a playground, gravel, sesame seeds and lentils (clockwise from top left). Images by Julia Kertesz, Martin Olsson, Jitender Kumar and Zyance ...