Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Dec-2025 08:11 ET (23-Dec-2025 13:11 GMT/UTC)
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Tiny solid particles – like pollutants, cloud droplets and medicine powders – form highly concentrated clusters in turbulent environments like smokestacks, clouds and pharmaceutical mixers. What causes these extreme clusters – which make it more difficult to predict everything from the spread of wildfire smoke to finding the right combination of ingredients for more effective drugs – has puzzled scientists. A new University at Buffalo study, published Sept. 19 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the answer lies within the electric forces between particles.
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A “teenaged” pachycephalosaur from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert may provide answers to lingering questions around the dinosaur group, according to new research published today in the journal Nature. The fossil represents a new species of pachycephalosaur and is both the oldest and most complete skeleton of this dinosaur group found to date.
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