Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you’ve seen any of the Avengers movies, they might have ...

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. Doing science isn’t easy. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to collect and analyze data. At least, that’s ...

The snapping of a finger was first depicted in ancient Greek art around 300 B.C. Today, that same snap initiates evil forces for the villain Thanos in Marvel’s latest Avengers movie. Both media ...

We Homo sapiens take our ability to snap for granted. So much so that anything we think of as easy is a snap to do. But a new study from a team of researchers and students published in the Journal of ...

It all happens in a snap. New high-speed video exposes the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it physics behind snapping your fingers. The footage reveals the extreme speed at which the gesture occurs, and shows ...

Researchers studied the physics of a finger snap and determined how friction plays a critical role. Using an intermediate amount of friction, not too high and not too low, a snap of the finger ...