Amidst your holiday celebrations, you may have encountered a chocolate fountain. In a recent paper, applied mathematicians have laid out the physics behind these delicious decorations, and it turns out Keep reading
Month: January 2025
Freezing From Below
Watch closely as a droplet freezes on a cold surface, and you’ll observe something surprising. First, a freeze front will appear, traveling upward from the substrate. It curves slightly near Keep reading
Swimming in Microgravity
For years, I have wondered what a fish swimming in microgravity would look like. Finally, my curiosity has been rewarded. Here is a sphere of water in microgravity, complete with Keep reading
Falling Ink
Photographer Linden Gledhill created these nebula-like composites from photos of ink diffusing in water. The work was inspired by Mark Stock’s “Spherical Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities” series featured here last week. Like Stock’s Keep reading
Helicopter Tip Vortices
Airplanes and other fixed-wing aircraft produce wingtip vortices as a result of their finite length. Rotor blades, like those on helicopters, produce the effect as well. Both wings and rotors Keep reading
Inside a Popping Bubble
Popping a soap bubble is more complicated than what the eye can see. In high-speed video, we find that the action is very directional, with the soap bubble film pulling Keep reading
Numerical Rayleigh-Taylor
If you’ve ever dripped food coloring or ink into a glass of water, you’ve probably created a cascade of tiny vortex rings similar to the images above. This is the Keep reading
“Monsoon II”
Every child learns about the water cycle in school, but an academic description of the process often lacks nature’s grandeur. In “Monsoon II” photographer Mike Olbinski captures the majesty of Keep reading
Collecting Water in the Desert
Desert-dwelling plants like cactuses have to be efficient collectors of water. Many types of cactus are particularly good at gathering water from fog that condenses on their spines. Droplets that Keep reading
The Tightrope Dancers
Boiling is a process most of us don’t pay much attention to. But it can be remarkably entertaining and beautiful. This award-winning video shows boiling on and around a heated Keep reading