News tagged with sand
Scientists Investigate Cause of 'Singing Dunes'
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (21) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In more than 30 locations around the world, the phenomenon of singing sand dunes has intrigued explorers, tourists, and scientists. When an avalanche occurs or even when the sand is pushed ...
Mice living in sandy hills quickly evolved lighter coloration
Aug 27, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
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In a vivid illustration of natural selection at work, scientists at Harvard University have found that deer mice living in Nebraska's Sand Hills quickly evolved lighter coloration after glaciers deposited ...
Study Reveals Small Lizard Tucks Legs and Swims Like a Snake Through Desert Sand (w/ Video)
Jul 16, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (11) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A study published in the July 17 issue of the journal Science details how sandfish -- small lizards with smooth scales -- move rapidly underground through desert sand. In this first thorou ...
Cassini Maps Global Pattern of Titan's Dunes
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 27, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Titan's vast dune fields, which may act like weather vanes to determine general wind direction on Saturn's biggest moon, have been mapped by scientists who compiled four years of radar data ...
Hydrophobic Sand Could Combat Desert Water Shortages
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 16, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (12) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Water scarcity is a major problem for people living in desert areas, including much of the Middle East and Africa. According to the United Nations, more than 1.6 million people die every year ...
Martian rock arrangement not alien handiwork
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 07, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
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At first, figuring out how pebble-sized rocks organize themselves in evenly-spaced patterns in sand seemed simple and even intuitive. But once Andrew Leier, an assistant geoscience professor at the U of C, started observing, ...
Spirit Rover: Right-Front Wheel Rotations
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 18, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Spirit's right-front wheel, which had stopped operating in March 2006, revolved with apparently normal motion during the first three of four driving segments on Sol 2117 (Wednesday, Dec. 16) ...
Sand dunes reveal unexpected dryness during heavy monsoon
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 06, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The windswept deserts of northern China might seem an odd destination for studying the heavy monsoon rains that routinely drench the more tropical regions of Southeast Asia.
It's a grind to make Mars red
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The widespread idea that Mars is red due to rocks being rusted by the water that once flooded the red planet may be wrong. Recent laboratory studies show that the red dust may be formed by ...
Ancient mammal tracks found at national monument
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jul 24, 2009 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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(AP) -- Hundreds of tiny footprints left by mammals some 190 million years ago have been found on a canyon wall in a remote part of Dinosaur National Monument, park officials said Thursday.
Scientists explore the physics of bumpy roads
Jul 07, 2009 |
3.5 / 5 (4) |
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sand or gravel or snow -- develops ripples that make driving a very shaky experience. A team of physicists from Canada, France and the United Kingdom have recreated this "washboard" phenomenon in the lab with ...
Birds with a nose for a difference
Jun 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Avoidance of inbreeding is evident amongst humans, and has been demonstrated in some shorebirds, mice and sand lizards. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology now report that it also occurs ...
Bizarre bird gets private beach in Indonesia
May 15, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
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(AP) -- A species of birds able to fly immediately after hatching from eggs buried beneath the tropical sand has just been given its own private beach in eastern Indonesia, a conservation group said Friday.
Mars Rover Update
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 26, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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In January 2004, NASA landed two identical robotic rovers named Spirit and Opportunity on the surface of Mars. The twins were primed for a brief 3-month mission to tell us a story of water and possibly life ...
So-called 'sandfish' could help materials handling and process technology specialists
Biology /
Oct 03, 2008 |
4 / 5 (2) |
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It moves as quickly in sand as a fish moves through water, which is why this lizard, a species of skink (Scincus scincus) that grows to about 15 cm long and lives in the deserts of North Africa and the Near East, is common ...
