内容摘要：A Palestinian, who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian, who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.But when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.

“The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another,” said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.The researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).The egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less .

“The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that’s not the case,” said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.Scientists found that the egg’s equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.

Eggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It’s not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.

It’s a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.who liked to say he viewed his adopted country through the eyes of an outsider. He called himself a “participant-observer,” combining research and direct experience and lending crucial perspective on municipal planning, attitudes toward race and poverty, mass communication and cultural tastes.

A professor emeritus at Columbia University and former president of thehe believed in making scholarly work accessible, and was a popular commentator and prolific essay writer. He served on the committee that prepared the

the 1968 government study that warned the country was “moving toward two societies, one Black, one white — separate and unequal.” In 1964, he testified on behalf ofwhen the comedian was on trial for obscenity.