The familiar heat, wear and general grinding to a halt of friction are all caused by what's going on at the microscopic level when two things rub. And down there, even the smoothest surfaces usually ...

Learn more about why removing some conveniences of modern life may be better for your brain health and overall well-being.

I'll be honest—friction is pretty complicated. Imagine that I have a block of wood sliding on a table. In some way, the atoms on the surface of the wood block are interacting with the surface atoms on ...

The machine doesn’t care what it’s making—only that it’s making it fast. Frictionless systems optimize output. But meaning, memory, and margin live in the mess it leaves behind. The great smoothing is ...

Easier isn’t always better, and this new viral trend shows you how to embrace inconvenience ...

Sometimes you think you have a complete understanding of something and then BOOM—a simple problem throws everything out the window. Let's consider a very basic physics problem involving pushing a ...

You’re on the street and you’re alone. Spanning the horizon, you see the sun cresting and one glorious corner after another. Some are slow, others are fast, with a few nice straights in between. Tire ...

Why do some people create friction in their workplaces? According to Bob Sutton, a professor of organisational behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business, some folks are oblivious when their ...