Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have identified key similarities between the behavior of granular materials and melting gels. They found that falling beds of sand share the same destabilization mechanism as melting gelatin as it is heated from below, particularly how key parameters scale with the thickness of the fluidized region. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, provide important inroads into our understanding of destabilization under gravity, as seen in avalanches, landslides, and industrial transport processes.