{"id":246955,"date":"2026-11-09T14:18:41","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T20:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/a-single-ai-model-simulates-the-behavior-of-many-substances-from-sliding-sand-to-folding-proteins"},"modified":"2026-11-09T14:18:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T20:18:41","slug":"a-single-ai-model-simulates-the-behavior-of-many-substances-from-sliding-sand-to-folding-proteins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/a-single-ai-model-simulates-the-behavior-of-many-substances-from-sliding-sand-to-folding-proteins","title":{"rendered":"A single AI model simulates the behavior of many substances, from sliding sand to folding proteins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Today, a scientist who wants to simulate a physical process must pick the right tool for that one job, such as a solver built for flowing water or another designed to model the way a protein folds. Each one is hand-coded around the specific equations that dictate how that process behaves.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at MIT, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and elsewhere have now replaced that patchwork with a single deep-learning system, called <a href=\"https:\/\/worldparticle.github.io\/WorldParticle_Web\/#top\" target=\"_blank\">WorldParticle<\/a>, that could help engineers model different physical phenomena, from sliding sand to folding proteins, with one unified artificial intelligence architecture.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists and engineers could use this system to model processes that typically require separate simulators, such as a fluid sloshing against a deformable solid. This could offer a faster, more accurate way to simulate how sloshing oil might impact an elastic valve in a storage tank, for instance. It could also help engineers study where and how granular materials, like sand or soil, could move when a soft robot touches them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, a scientist who wants to simulate a physical process must pick the right tool for that one job, such as a solver built for flowing water or another designed to model the way a protein folds. Each one is hand-coded around the specific equations that dictate how that process behaves. Researchers at MIT, the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-science","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/630"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}