What termites and cells have in common

Nature is full of fascinating patterns. Plants show beautiful spiral growth, regularly arranged leaves and petals, animals impress us with their striped and dotted furs and social insects build complex nest structures. These ...

New research unlocks the mystery of New England's beaches

Millions of Americans will visit New England's beaches this summer to cool off, play in the waves and soak up the sun. Until now, the factors governing which beaches slope gradually to the sea and which ones end abruptly ...

A dusty lab in the sky

Joe Nuth loves dust. Among astronomers, that puts him in a minority.

Famous 'sandpile model' shown to move like a traveling sand dune

The so-called Abelian sandpile model has been studied by scientists for more than 30 years to better understand a physical phenomenon called self-organized criticality, which appears in many real-life situations such as the ...

Research helps in understanding the dynamics of dune formation

Crescent-shaped dunes called barchans are structures that appear in a wide variety of environments, including beaches and deserts, riverbeds and the seafloor, inside water pipes and oil pipelines, and on the surface of Mars ...

A theoretical analysis of sand mega-ripples

A team of researchers from several institutions in Germany and Israel has used theoretical analysis to explain the conditions under which mega-ripples form in areas where sand dunes rise. In their paper published in the journal ...

To shore up beaches, just add sand?

New research is shedding light on how mechanically placed sand on San Diego County beaches moves and its potential impacts. The study, published in the journal Coastal Engineering, could help planners develop beach nourishment ...

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