Turn on your kitchen sink, and the falling jet may form a circle of shallow flow where it strikes the sink. This fast-moving region of flow, surrounded by a wall Keep reading
“Emerald Roots”
As charged particles from the solar wind bombard the upper atmosphere, a glowing plasma forms and dances in the sky. The green light of the plasma reflects off moistened sand, Keep reading
Swedish Egg Coffee
In the mid-1800s, Scandinavian immigrants settling in the Midwest had no filters, no percolators, and no drip coffee makers to aid their quest for a cup of coffee. Instead, they Keep reading
Turbulent Thermal Convection
In the winter, warm air rises from our floor vents or radiators, creating a complex, invisible flow in the background of our lives. Buoyancy lifts warmer air upward while cooler, Keep reading
A Working Wirtz Pump
In the mid-eighteenth century, pewterer Andreas Wirtz invented a spiral pump. Even today, his design is useful for small-scale, low-power pumping, as seen in this Steve Mould video. The design Keep reading
Enhancing the Cheerios Effect
The Cheerios in your morning cereal clump together with one another and the bowl’s wall due to an attractive force caused by the curvature of their menisci. A recent study Keep reading
“A Sun Question”
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