NEWS CATEGORIES:



NEWS ARCHIVE >>
SOFTPEDIA REVIEWS >>
MEET THE EDITORS >>
Home / News / Tags / sand

Stories about: sand


How Skinks 'Swim' Through Sand

In spite of being so common it's becoming annoying at times, sand is one of the most peculiar states of matter on the planet. While it may indeed not show, the stuff is able to behave like both a solid and a liquid at the same time, an ability that has made many physicists puzzle over which one of the two sands ...

10 November 2009
10:59 GMT

Large-Scale River Model Shows What Sand Can Do

Scientists at the University of California in Berkeley (UCB) have managed to construct and sustain a large-scale, meandering river model in the laboratory, analyzing the most important factors that keep a flowing water healthy in the long run. Surprisingly, their reverse-engineering study has shown that sand is of th...

30 September 2009
08:48 GMT

The Real Reason Why Mars Is Red

Many experts currently consider that Mars' reddish hue is owed to rusted rocks, which were subjected to the action of the water that once covered the planet. This idea has been proposed and debated for a long time, but recent laboratory studies are beginning to infirm it, some experts say. The investigations hav...

18 September 2009
08:47 GMT

New Explanation for Titan's Sand Dunes

The linear dunes that have been observed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, have made astronomers wonder how they came to be since day one. A number of theories on their formation was proposed, some with no merit, and others that actually stand to reason even now. To these ideas, Louisiana State Uni...

26 August 2009
08:43 GMT

6,000-Mile Wall to Contain Sahara Proposed

Engineers have recently unveiled a plan that a few years back might have seemed like a joke – to build a wall to mark the spread of the Sahara desert, so that the dunes stop spreading over yet-unaffected ground. The problem appears all over the Saharan borders, as fields and families are being displaced by the ...

24 July 2009
10:58 GMT

Despite Being Buried in Sand, Spirit Does Science

The Spirit Martian rover is rising up to its name, NASA has announced recently. Despite being stuck up to its hubcaps in loose soil, the robot continues to do relevant science, taking pictures of its surroundings, and also of Troy, the patch of Earth that trapped it on May 6th. While engineers at the Jet Propulsion L...

26 June 2009
04:22 GMT

Fifth State of Matter Probably Found in Sand

Sand is, perhaps, the single best material in the world. Millions of people live in it, and billions others interact with it as children or during holiday. And it's in this seemingly common, uninteresting, and sometimes deadly material that physicists believe they may have discovered hints about the fifth state ...

25 June 2009
03:56 GMT

Spirit Replica Struggles to Get Out of Sandbox

With Spirit trapped in loose Martian soil since May 6th, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, are working around the clock to mimic the conditions of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) in their test facilities. Spirit and Opportunity are not the only MER components, as mission pl...

10 June 2009
13:21 GMT

Spirit Takes Pictures of Its Underside

After becoming stuck in the loose Martian soil of the Troy region, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit has recently taken its first pictures of its underside, in a move that has been simulated back on Earth, and with its twin robot Opportunity as well. At this point, researchers have no clue as to how the...

5 June 2009
03:37 GMT

Mars Has Its Own Wrinkles

The latest images sent by the Martian human-made explorers and orbiters show, in more detail, how the sand ripples scar the planet's surface in some regions, which allows scientists to build up on their existing theories related to their formation, or to come up with entirely new ones. Yet, as we lack more accur...

6 November 2008
06:38 GMT

Corals Hate Sand

Latest scientific discoveries point to the fact that coral reefs and sand are "allergic" to each other, in that they can't survive together. This is especially true for the coral reefs, which, once sand gets in their midst, die and cannot regenerate even after long periods of time. The find is essential in under...

15 October 2008
10:57 GMT

Questions to How Martian Sand Dunes Form Still Open

It is almost unbelievable that Mars, having barely any atmosphere, is able to create sand storms so powerful that they are visible from the surface of our planet. During these storms sand is being lifted high into the Red Planet's atmosphere and dropped only to stir up other dust particles present of the surface...

29 April 2008
10:55 GMT

Too Much Time on the Beach Can Ruin Your Stomach

You can't wait for that dream holiday when you just lay on the beach and catch sun. But watch out: too much wet sand or swimming in the sea can harm your stomach. A team at the University of Florida has discovered that by spending more time on the wet sand or in the water you increase the chances of getting germ...

4 February 2008
05:32 GMT

Have You Ever Seen a ...Pink Beach?

You know that sand comes in colors of yellow, white, or gray. Sometimes, if it's volcanic, also black. But what about a pink sand beach?As incredible as it may seem, they do exist. Harbour Island (Bahamas) is most renowned for its pale pink sand beaches, some over 3 miles (5 km) long and 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30...

14 September 2007
14:06 GMT

How to Play Beach Volley

Born on the Californian beaches of Santa Monica and becoming an Olympic Game in 1996, the beach volley is a mixture between a good dose of strength, stamina and intuition. This is by excellence the summer sport, linked to the sand and sun. Moreover, many beaches have a net for playing this sport. It is played in pair...

3 September 2007
16:06 GMT

Why Are Granular Materials Solids Yet Moving Like Liquids?

Granular materials are widely found both in nature and in industrial applications and although we use them every day, theoretical physicists and manufacturers are still puzzled by their weird behavior. Although they are solid, they refuse to comply to the laws of physics that govern the movement of solids and they d...

24 July 2007
06:34 GMT

Scientists Divided Sand, Will the Red Sea Be Next?

Although they did not find out how Moses could separate the water of the Red Sea, they were able to do the same with a mass of sand grains, in an experiment which proves that no outside force is necessary to make identical molecules part.Scientists at the Rutgers University, New Jersey, proved that two identical pop...

13 July 2007
06:33 GMT

High Atmospheric Pressure on Sandy Planets Could Make Lander Modules Sink Like a Rock

Landing at high enough speeds on sandy planets could sink the landing module deep in the sand layer, just like a rock diving into a pool. This is the conclusion of a new study that considered the problem of sand on other planets and how that could affect future manned missions to the Moon and Mars.Both Mars and the M...

4 July 2007
10:59 GMT

Mars Express Sent Pictures of Unexplained Linear Features in a Tectonic Area on the Red Planet

Mars Express sent back some interesting pictures of the Aeolis Mensae region on Mars, lying on a tectonic transition zone. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the space probe took snapshots of the wind-eroded features, like incised valleys and unexplained linear features.This region on the surface of M...

28 June 2007
10:24 GMT

The Driest Place on Earth: the Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is located in northern Chile and reaches a small part of southern Peru (South America), climbing up to 3,200 m (10,670 ft) altitude on an area of 181,300 square km (72,500 square mi). It spreads like a rather narrow stretch between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains over a distance of 960 km...

23 May 2007
11:33 GMT

Mystery of Mars' Sand Dunes Solved

A long-standing mystery about Mars' sand dunes may have just been sold by scientists. The strange thing about the dunes is that they look as if they were created by winds, but there are no winds on the surface of Mars.Discovered in 1971 in pictures taken from space, above the surface, they look very similar to ...

16 May 2007
05:01 GMT


Windows tabGames tabDrivers tabMac tabLinux tabScripts tabMobile tabHandheld tabGadgets tabNews tab

SUBMIT PROGRAM   |   ADVERTISE   |   GET HELP   |   SEND US FEEDBACK   |   RSS FEEDS   |   ENTER NEWS SITE   |   ENGLISH BOARD   |   ROMANIAN FORUM