From studies of “geometric frustration,” scientists learn how paper folds under pressure. By Siobhan Roberts A piece of crumpled paper, in all of its creased fragmentations, suffers from “geometric ...

University physicists Thomas Witten and Sidney Nagel have been investigating where energy is stored in thin sheets of Mylar when work is performed on them by crumpling. They find the ability of a ...

Crumpling is a ubiquitous, though poorly understood, physical phenomenon. It occurs when a fender absorbs the energy of a car crash, when Earth’s crust buckles at the interface between colliding ...

(Nanowerk Spotlight) How often have you crumpled a sheet of paper in frustration and thrown it into the bin without further thought? You'll be amazed to hear that researchers – inspired by a trash can ...