The Secrets of Baseball’s “Magic Mud”

The unique properties of baseball’s famed “magic” mud have never been scientifically quantified — until now.

In a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) reveal what makes the magic mud so special.

“It spreads like a skin cream and grips like sandpaper,” says Shravan Pradeep, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Douglas J. Jerolmack, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in Earth and Environmental Science (EES) within SAS and in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) within Penn Engineering, and Paulo Arratia, Eduardo D. Glandt Distinguished Scholar and Professor in MEAM and in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE).

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