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.

Ernesto Altshuler graduated from the University of Havana in 1986, and defended his Ph.D. in 1994. His original research covers the fields of magnetism, superconductivity, granular matter, social insects, bacterial motility, and a variety of other subjects, always with a strong experimental accent. He is editor of the journal Granular Matter and Editor in Chief of the Revista Cubana de Física. His research work has been featured by journals like Science and American Scientist. Altshuler is a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences.
 
Alexander Petroff completed his PhD in Earth Science in 2011, going on to hold a fellowship at the Rockefeller University, joining Albert Libchaber’s laboratory. He has served as professor of physics at Clark University since 2018, with research centered on microbial ecology. However, his research has involved the study of granular matter as a fundamental actor in geophysical phenomena.