News tagged with sand
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 ...
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (22) |
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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
May 09, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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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
Apr 02, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (15) |
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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 ...
Mar 29, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
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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
Aug 21, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (17) |
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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.
May 27, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
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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 ...
Feb 25, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (7) |
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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
Feb 03, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
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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
Mar 31, 2010 |
4.4 / 5 (28) |
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Mice living in sandy hills quickly evolved lighter coloration
In a vivid illustration of natural selection at work, scientists at Harvard University have found that deer mice living in Nebraska's Sand Hills quickly evolved lighter coloration after glaciers deposited ...
Aug 27, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
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Study Reveals Small Lizard Tucks Legs and Swims Like a Snake Through Desert Sand (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- A study published in the July 17 issue of the journal Science details how sandfish -- small lizards with smooth scales -- move rapidly underground through desert sand. In this first thorou ...
Jul 16, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (11) |
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Cassini Maps Global Pattern of Titan's Dunes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Titan's vast dune fields, which may act like weather vanes to determine general wind direction on Saturn's biggest moon, have been mapped by scientists who compiled four years of radar data ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 27, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
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Hydrophobic Sand Could Combat Desert Water Shortages
(PhysOrg.com) -- Water scarcity is a major problem for people living in desert areas, including much of the Middle East and Africa. According to the United Nations, more than 1.6 million people die every year ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 16, 2009 |
3.9 / 5 (13) |
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Martian rock arrangement not alien handiwork
At first, figuring out how pebble-sized rocks organize themselves in evenly-spaced patterns in sand seemed simple and even intuitive. But once Andrew Leier, an assistant geoscience professor at the U of C, started observing, ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 07, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
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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, ...
May 25, 2012 |
2.5 / 5 (2) |
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