A Different Kind of Splash

This book introduces the science of granular matter and explains its surprising properties for a general audience, while giving a glimpse into the life of a Cuban scientist. Many examples of granular matter are quotidian (sand, coffee, snow…), but they can exhibit fascinating and puzzling behaviors which are far from mundane, such as in the formation of a meteor crater where the soil acts like both a liquid and a solid. Understanding granular matter in full depth constitutes a tough intellectual challenge of modern science, and is of prime importance to understanding and controlling many human and natural processes. It has been estimated that half of the sales in the world are directly or indirectly associated to granular materials. And, of course, it is also fun. Thanks to the complexity of granular matter, it commonly displays different states: the solid-like (jammed) state, the liquid-like state, and the gas-like state. The states can even co-exist simultaneously, a fact which science is still getting to grips with. The structure of this book, like granular matter itself, begins with the jammed state before moving to the “liquid-like” state, and ending up in the “gas-like” state…but not without some difficulty: there is a very wide region where the jammed and flowing states are impossible to separate. The author softens this didactical chaos by sprinkling in anecdotes, revealing the tenacity and inventiveness (not to mention sense of humor) required to do experimental physics research in Cuba. The ideas within are illustrated with the author’s own “high tropicality” experiments, many of which involve one of the most beautiful and interesting examples of granular matter: the feces of wood termites.