Researchers have uncovered friction without contact—driven entirely by magnetic interactions. As two magnetic layers slide, ...

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Researchers at the University of Konstanz have uncovered a new mechanism of sliding friction: resistance to motion that ...

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 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 ...