MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 31 • MARCH 2006 167 From Mirror to Mist: Cracking the Secret of Fracture Instabilities When cracks in a material propagate, bonds between atoms are broken, generating two new surfaces. Experiments have shown that cracks moving at low speeds create atomically flat, mirror-like surfaces, whereas cracks moving at higher speeds create increasingly rough fracture surfaces. Dyna...

Basaltic eruptions are commonly associated with lava emissions and relatively weak explosive activities, but they can sometimes produce strong eruptive phases. In April November 2005, two paroxysmal events occurred within the summit crater of Karthala basaltic shield volcano (Grande Comore Island, Comoros), which hosted a water lake before each these events. Both 2005 ash plumes spread across C...

Analyses of the relationship between female preference and male behaviour have been complicated by correlated variation in factors such as male size and appearance. This study examined the effects of systematically manipulating male behaviour, while holding male morphology constant. Female green swordtails were shown video-recorded sequences of the same male engaging in an active courtship disp...