The sun‘s surface and atmosphere are endlessly dynamic, with magnetic lines, plasma, and convection creating a constant churn. In this photo by astrophotographer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, a curving question-mark-like filament Keep reading
Swirling Sea Ice
The Sea of Okhotsk is the northern hemisphere’s southernmost sea that seasonally freezes. Caught between the Siberian coast and the Kamchatka Peninsula, cold air from Siberia helps freeze water kept Keep reading
Jamming Inside
Worm-like Spirostomum ambiguum are millimeter-sized single-cell organisms that live in brackish waters. In milliseconds, these cells can retract to half their original length, generating g-forces greater than a Formula One Keep reading
Do Droughts Worsen Floods?
In recent years many areas have seen record droughts followed by sudden, massive rainfalls. Such wild swings raise the question: does drought-parched soil make flooding worse? That’s the question Grady Keep reading
Extreme Weather and Climate Change
Extreme weather events like floods, hurricanes, atmospheric rivers, heat waves, and droughts are increasingly discussed in terms of the effects of climate change. Because complex systems have complex causes, it’s Keep reading
Ghosts of Rivers Past
Artist Dan Coe uses lidar data to create portraits of rivers and their past meanders. Used aerially, lidar produces high-resolution elevation data that provides a glimpse of features that are Keep reading
Filling Space
While not directly fluid dynamical, this video from Steve Mould uses water to illustrate mathematical concepts like fractals and space-filling curves. Water, it turns out, does a great job of Keep reading
Linking Size and Origin in Droplets
Respiratory diseases like measles, flu, tuberculosis, and COVID-19 are all transmitted by droplets. Some are tiny and airborne, capable of traveling long distances. Other drops are larger and only capable Keep reading
An August Arc
In summer, the fjords of Greenland are littered with ice, but in August 2023, satellites caught an odd interloper. See the thin white arc spanning the fjord in the photo Keep reading
A Better Ear Plug
Ear plugs can be wonderful at blocking outside noise, but they come with a downside: they typically amplify internal bodily sounds, like our heartbeat, breathing, and chewing. This effect, called Keep reading