Mechanical and acoustical properties as a research area focuses on characterizing and modeling how materials and structures respond to mechanical loads and acoustic waves, including stress–strain behavior, elasticity, viscoelasticity, damping, wave propagation, impedance, and sound absorption or transmission. It integrates solid mechanics, continuum mechanics, and acoustics to understand couplings between structural dynamics and sound fields, often using experimental techniques such as dynamic mechanical analysis, ultrasonic testing, and impedance tube measurements, alongside analytical and numerical methods (e.g., finite element and boundary element modeling). This research underpins the design and optimization of materials and systems for vibration control, noise reduction, ultrasonic devices, and acoustic metamaterials.
Diamond is among the hardest naturally occurring substances on Earth, but if you shrink it down to the nanoscale, it is surprisingly elastic. And that could be useful for a host of applications such as quantum computing. ...
Although the fundamental constitutive laws for steel and concrete were established more than a century ago, weak layers in snow remain a mystery. There are currently two theories about how they fail. A study published in ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 15, 2026
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We thought it was evolution, but an experiment with pencils shows that tips like teeth and thorns may owe their rounded shape to mechanical wear. Most of us have been stung by a bee, bitten by an animal, or scratched by a ...
Evolution
Apr 10, 2026
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153
When tectonic plates move, they rarely do so smoothly. Sometimes they slide almost imperceptibly; at other times, stress is suddenly released—resulting in an earthquake. What exactly governs this behavior remains one of the ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 9, 2026
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The hair cells lining the inner ear are among the most sophisticated structures in the human body: capable of detecting sounds as faint as a whisper, while helping to maintain our sense of balance. Through new models detailed ...
Most people think of diamonds as high-end adornments. Not Ania Bleszynski Jayich. The UC Santa Barbara physicist sees diamonds, which she grows in the UC Quantum Foundry, as a potentially powerful foundation for quantum sensors. ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 6, 2026
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The taste and texture profile of protein shakes could be improved by tweaking the way whey protein is made, new research has found. An ongoing collaboration among the University of Reading, Aberystwyth University and Arla ...
Agriculture
Mar 30, 2026
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In a development that could shift our basic understanding of fluid mechanics, researchers from Drexel University have reported that, given the right circumstances, it is possible to induce a simple liquid to fracture like ...
Soft Matter
Mar 28, 2026
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Proteins are far more than nutrients we track on a food label. Present in every cell of our bodies, they work like nature's molecular machines. They walk, stretch, bend, and flex to do their jobs, pumping blood, fighting ...
Biotechnology
Mar 27, 2026
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Phonons are the quantum units of mechanical vibration. They describe how motion propagates through a solid at the smallest possible scales, in much the same way that electrons describe electric currents. Because phonons can ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 25, 2026
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