Building our own copy of Mars in the laboratory was hard work. We had to shift 15 tonnes of sand to create a swimming-pool-sized model of the red planet. But the effort was well worth it as our experiments shed light on a ...
Space Exploration
May 22, 2015
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A team of researchers at Finland's Aalto University has discovered a way to cause droplets of ferrofluid (liquids with suspended magnetic nanoparticles in them) to self-assemble into complex shapes. In their paper published ...
A device that can instantly identify unknown liquids based on their surface tension has been selected to receive the 2013 R&D 100 Award—known as "the Oscar of Innovation"—from R&D Magazine.
Nanophysics
Jul 8, 2013
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Everybody who has tried to stack oranges in a box knows that a regular packing of spheres in a flat layer naturally leads to a hexagonal pattern, where each sphere is surrounded by six neighbours in a honeycomb-like fashion. ...
Soft Matter
May 24, 2013
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(Phys.org) —Just a few drops of liquid or a bit more is run past specialized sensors in microfluidic devices to detect chemicals of concern to doctors and security personnel. However, these devices are now being reinvented ...
Analytical Chemistry
May 15, 2013
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Researchers at Aalto University have developed a purely geometric surface structure that is able to stop and control the spreading of liquids on different types of surfaces. The structure has an undercut edge that works for ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 24, 2013
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Theoretical physicist Moumita Maiti and colleagues at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, have now implemented an algorithm for analysing void space in sphere packing, where the ...
Soft Matter
Feb 1, 2013
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All of planet Earth seemed to follow the rover Curiosity's harrowing descent to the surface of Mars. Curiosity's early discoveries showed that liquid water once flowed on the Martian surface, but the big discoveries still ...
Space Exploration
Dec 7, 2012
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It's morning, deep in the Amazon jungle. In the still air innumerable leaves glisten with moisture, and fog drifts through the trees. As the sun rises, clouds appear and float across the forest canopy ... but where do they ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 10, 2012
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It would make life a lot easier if the surfaces of window panes, corrosion coatings or microfluidic systems in medical labs could keep themselves free of water and other liquids. A new simulation program can now work out ...
Engineering
Jun 4, 2012
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