Hi, folks! As the social media landscape fractured, I’ve been dragging my feet about making some needed changes. But no longer. As of November 2024, I am no longer updating Keep reading
Kirigami in the Flow
Kirigami is a paper art that combines folding and cutting to create elaborate shapes. Here, researchers use cuts in thin sheets of plastic and explore how the sheets transform in Keep reading
Inside Hail Formation
Conventional wisdom suggests that hailstones form over the course of repeated trips up and down through a storm, but a new study suggests that formation method is less common than Keep reading
Dams Fill Reservoirs With Sediment
Dams are critical pieces of infrastructure, but, as Grady shows in this Practical Engineering video, they are destined to be temporary. The reason is that they naturally fill with sediment Keep reading
Creating Liquid Landscapes
Artist Roman De Giuli excels at creating what appear to be vast landscapes carved by moving water. In reality, these pieces are small-scale flows, created on paper. Now, De Giuli Keep reading
Charged Drops Don’t Splash
When a droplet falls on a surface, it spreads itself horizontally into a thin lamella. Sometimes — depending on factors like viscosity, impact speed, and air pressure — that drop Keep reading
On the Mechanics of Wet Sand
Sand is a critical component of many built environments. As most of us learn (via sand castle), adding just the right amount of water allows sand to be quite strong. Keep reading
Seeking Uranus’s Spin
Uranus is one of our solar system’s oddest planets. An ice giant, it spins on its side. We originally estimated its rate of rotation using measurements from Voyager 2, the Keep reading
Escape From Yavin 4
In an ongoing tradition, let’s take another look at some Star Wars-inspired aerodynamics. This year it’s the TIE fighter’s turn. Here, researchers simulate the spacecraft trying to escape Yavin 4’s Keep reading
“Legend”
Filmmaker Roman De Giuli returns to his roots with this short fluid-filled film inspired by the color gold. He combines paint, ink, powders, and particles in a mix of micro- Keep reading
Martian Mud Volcanoes
Mars features mounds that resemble our terrestrial mud volcanoes, suggesting that a similar form of mudflow occurs on Mars. But Mars’ thin atmosphere and frigid temperatures mean that water — Keep reading