Anita Mehta, a former Rhodes scholar, is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. She is well known as being one of the pioneers in granular physics, and is credited with the introduction of many new concepts in this field, in particular to do with the competition of slow and fast modes in granular dynamics.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Computer simulation approaches - an overview; 3. Structure of vibrated powders - numerical results; 4. Collective structures in sand - the phenomenon of bridging; 5. On angles of repose: bistability and collapse; 6. Compaction of disordered grains in the jamming limit: sand on random graphs; 7. Shaking a box of sand I - a simple lattice model; 8. Shaking a box of sand II - at the jamming limit, when shape matters!; 9. Avalanches with reorganising grains; 10. From earthquakes to sandpiles - stick-slip motion; 11. Coupled continuum equations: the dynamics of sand-pile surfaces; 12. Theory of rapid granular flows; 13. The thermodynamics of granular materials; 14. Static properties of granular materials; Author index; Subject index; Bibliography.