A stroll on the beach can mean sinking your toes into smooth sand or walking firm-footed on a surface that appears almost solid. While both properties are commonplace, exactly what it is that makes ...

Examples of granular matter: multicolored plastic balls in a playground, gravel, sesame seeds and lentils (clockwise from top left). Images by Julia Kertesz, Martin Olsson, Jitender Kumar and Zyance ...

Jacqueline Reber receives funding from the Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Frontier Science Fund. Did you eat cereal this morning? Or have you walked on a gravel path? Maybe ...

Pour sand from a bucket and it flows like a liquid, but stand on it and it supports weight like a solid. This unusual behavior is a property of granular materials, and it is one of the reasons ...