How much do you know about friction? Jennifer R. Vail's charming, if sometimes technical, "biography" of the force showcases its amazing and largely overlooked role in everything from climate change ...

Of course, the study of friction is nothing new; and to explain the 20th-century crisis, and to understand where tribology may yet take us, we must first understand how we got here. So begins Vail’s ...

Delving into history books, we can learn that already thousands of years ago the Egyptians realized that lubricants like water and oil helped reduce the friction of sledges that moved the heavy stones ...

You know that two surfaces mate, but what is a friction clutch or brake? Using friction has been the most popular way to engage and stop loads since the 1800s. Surfaces interact with ...