Tag: granular materials
Tech

Tiny Jenga: Ants can sense which soil grains to remove when digging tunnels

Enlarge / Two ants tunneling in green gel. A new Caltech study found that ants search for and remove loose grains of soil when digging their tunnels, much like humans remove loose blocks while playing Jenga . (credit: Kimberly Hosey/Getty Images ) Ants are prodigious diggers, constructing elaborate nests with multiple layers connected by an […]

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Tech

Cracking the case: New study sheds more light on the “Brazil nut effect”

(video link) Open a can of mixed nuts, and chances are you’ll find a bunch of Brazil nuts topping the heap—whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on how you feel about Brazil nuts. It’s such a common phenomenon that it’s known as the “Brazil nut effect” (though muesli mix also gives rise to […]

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