We consider materials whose mechanical integrity is the result of a jamming process. We argue that such media are generically "fragile": unable to support certain types of incremental loading without plastic rearrangement. Fragility is linked to the marginal stability of force chain networks within the material. Such ideas may be relevant to jammed colloids and poured sand. The crossover from fragile (when particles are rigid) to elastoplastic behavior is explored.

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An erodible bed sheared by a fluid flow, gas or liquid, is generally unstable, and bed forms grow. This review discusses the following issues, in light of the recent literature: What are the relevant dynamical mechanisms controlling the emergence of bed forms? Do they form by linear instability or nonlinear processes such as pattern coarsening? What determines their timescales and length scales, so different in air and water? What are the similarities and differences between aeolian and subaqueous patterns? What is the influence of the mode of transport: bed load, saltation, or suspension? Can bed forms emerge under any hydrodynamical regime, laminar and turbulent? Guided by these questions, we propose a unified description of bed-form growth and saturation, emphasizing the hydrodynamical regime in the inner layer and the relaxation phenomena associated with particle transport. 469