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News tagged with sand

Study uncovers secret to speedy burrowing by razor clams

(Phys.org) -- If you look at a razor burrowing clam sitting in a bucket, you’d never guess that it could burrow itself down into the soil, much less do it with any speed. Razor clams look like fat straws, ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 25, 2012 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Scientists measure Martian sand movement: Dune migration rates appear to be similar to those on Earth

Last year, images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured sand dunes and ripples moving across the surface of Mars—observations that challenged previously held beliefs that there was not a lot ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Caltech Rover ready for rock-yard competition in Houston

(Phys.org) -- Later this week, a four-wheeled robot designed and built by Caltech undergraduate students will maneuver, apparently under its own guidance, through various challenges at the NASA Johnson Space ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 29, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Self-sculpting sand could allow spontaneous formation of new tools, duplication of broken mechanical parts

Imagine that you have a big box of sand in which you bury a tiny model of a footstool. A few seconds later, you reach into the box and pull out a full-size footstool: The sand has assembled itself into a large-scale ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Sand Flea robot is set to leap into reconnaissance (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Boston Dynamics’ video gallery of troop-supporting robots that trek and haul loads has a new addition that is drawing a sea of impressed viewers. It’s the Sand Flea Robot, an eleven-pound ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Mar 29, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 12 | with audio podcast report

Scientists Investigate Cause of 'Singing Dunes'

(PhysOrg.com) -- In more than 30 locations around the world, the phenomenon of singing sand dunes has intrigued explorers, tourists, and scientists. When an avalanche occurs or even when the sand is pushed ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (22) | comments 7 feature

Earth's oldest fossils boost hopes for life on Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microfossils found in Australia show that more than 3.4 billion years ago, bacteria thrived on an Earth that had no oxygen, a finding that boosts hopes life has existed on Mars, a study published ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 21, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 11

Spitzer sees crystal 'rain' in outer clouds of infant star

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny crystals of a green mineral called olivine are falling down like rain on a burgeoning star, according to observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 27, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Winds of change strike Mars, too

Mysterious dark sand dunes around Mars' northern polar cap are shifting with the seasons, as carbon dioxide gas changes form and sparks landscape-altering avalanches, said a study published Thursday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 03, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Why the sandfish lizard wriggles as it does (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The sandfish lizard (Scincus scincus) lives in the desert sands of North Africa and burrows through the sand by wriggling. Now scientists in the US have created a computer model that emulat ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 25, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Putting an airplane on a distant moon

(PhysOrg.com) -- In addition to its rivers, oceans, mountains, sand dunes and winds, Saturn’s moon Titan may someday share another similarity with Earth: airplanes.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 25, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 24 | with audio podcast

X-rays create a window on glass formation: First ever visualization of how powder becomes molten glass

Scientists have for the first time visualised the transformation of powder mixtures into molten glass. A better understanding of this process will make it possible to produce high quality glass at lower temperatures, ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Apr 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Ice sheet melt identified as trigger of Big Freeze

The main cause of a rapid global cooling period, known as the Big Freeze or Younger Dryas - which occurred nearly 13,000 years ago - has been identified thanks to the help of an academic at the University of Sheffield.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 31, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (28) | comments 25 | with audio podcast

Geologists discover new class of landform -- on Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- An odd, previously unseen landform could provide a window into the geological history of Mars, according to new research by University of Washington geologists.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 22, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (12) | comments 47 | with audio podcast

Photo from NASA Mars orbiter shows wind's handiwork

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some images of stark Martian landscapes provide visual appeal beyond their science value, including a recent scene of wind-sculpted features from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast