A newly designed optical centrifuge allows scientists to control molecular rotation inside superfluid helium nano-droplets.

Chemists and physicists at the University of Amsterdam shed light on a crucial aspect of friction: how things begin to slide. Using fluorescence microscopy and dedicated fluorescent molecules, they ...

But scientists have struggled for decades to accurately calculate the value of friction, which is part of the data used when running coarse-grained simulations, Guenza said. As molecules move through ...

(Nanowerk News) For 15 years, scientists have been baffled by the mysterious way water flows through the tiny passages of carbon nanotubes — pipes with walls that can be just one atom thick. The ...

For nearly 200 years, scientists clung to a simple idea: ice is slippery because pressure or friction melts its surface, creating a thin film of water that lets you slide like Mumble from Happy Feet.

Scientists have now uncovered new velocity and temperature-dependent properties of rubber friction on asphalt -- bolstering the idea that an important component of friction originates when chains of ...

The Saarland researchers reveal that the slipperiness of ice is driven by electrostatic forces, not melting. Water molecules in ice are arranged in a rigid crystal lattice. Each molecule has a ...

People say that water and oil don’t mix. They can, however, co-exist as two separate molecules on the same surface. And therein lie both opportunities and challenges for National Institute of ...

The study of tribology, the science of friction, wear and lubrication, has increasingly benefitted from advances in molecular dynamics simulations, providing detailed atomistic insights into the ...