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AnonTechie writes:

Pick up a handful of sand, and it flows through your fingers like a liquid. But when you walk on the beach, the sand supports your weight like a solid. What happens to the forces between the jumbled sand grains when you step on them to keep you from sinking ? An international team of researchers collaborating at Duke University ( http://www.duke.edu ) have developed a new way to measure the forces inside materials such as sand, soil or snow under pressure.

Described in the March 5 issue of Nature Communications, the technique uses lasers coupled with force sensors, digital cameras and advanced computer algorithms to peer inside and measure the forces between neighboring particles in 3-D.

The new approach will allow researchers to better understand phenomena like the jamming of grain hoppers or the early warning signs of earthquakes and avalanches, said study co-author Nicolas Brodu, now at the French institute Inria.

[Abstract/Paper]: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150305/ncomms7361/full/ncomms7361.html