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.
When inner and outer cell layers of sepals—the leaf-like plant organs that cover and protect the flower bud before it opens—all grow upward, the organs stay smooth and uniformly stiff, which is optimal for the plant, according ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 3, 2026
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In a quiet summer garden, a caterpillar perches on a branch, munching serenely on leaves. A moment later, it freezes. It senses danger—and just in time. From behind, a wasp approaches, sizing up its prey.
Plants & Animals
Sep 2, 2026
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Cells in our bodies squeeze through dense tissue channels, thread past neighboring cells and navigate every nook and cranny within the extracellular matrix—the mesh-like network that surrounds and supports cells. How well ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 24, 2026
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Sand, powders, and other collections of visible-sized grains are found throughout daily life, from food and pharmaceuticals to soils and industrial materials. When grains of similar size are arranged regularly, they can form ...
General Physics
Aug 19, 2026
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Many materials, both living and engineered, are powered from within. Scientists have thoroughly investigated how such 'active' materials operate, but so far, mostly in circumstances where the curvature of the environment ...
Soft Matter
Aug 18, 2026
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Anyone who has had to share a room—or worse, a bed—with a loud snorer knows the effect unchecked snoring can have on sleep, sanity and emotional stability. An entire industry of products, technologies and treatments claims ...
General Physics
Aug 18, 2026
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Scientists have long believed that tissue-resident memory T cells—which remain in tissues after an infection has cleared and respond rapidly if the threat returns—are shaped primarily by biochemical signals. A McGill University–led ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 17, 2026
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Snails are particularly active after a rain shower. Even on the Max Planck Campus in Potsdam-Golm, common brown-lipped snails (Cepaea nemoralis) leave behind shiny trails of mucus. Researchers from the "Biomaterials" department ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 7, 2026
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Can a crack be supersonic? Can the fracture that triggers an avalanche propagate faster than the limiting velocity predicted by classical fracture mechanics? The question remains the subject of debate within the scientific ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 5, 2026
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Mechanical strain is one of the most common tools used to tailor the properties of materials. In piezoelectric materials, stretching or compressing a crystal generates an electrical polarization. In piezomagnetic materials, ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 29, 2026
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