Last week was supposed to have a fluids round-up, but we were having too much fun walking on water instead. So here it is now!
– NASA has asked Congress for funding for new X-plane programs to explore solutions for greener airliners and quieter sonic booms to enable next-generation air travel. Popular Science, Gizmodo, and Ars Technica take a closer look at the proposed projects. I won’t lie – as an aerospace engineer I am hugely in favor of this. The first ‘A’ in NASA has been neglected for quite a while and projects like these are needed if we want to advance the state-of-the-art in aeronautics.
– The New York Times’ ScienceTake video series took a look back at their most popular videos, and 3 of the top 5 videos are fluid dynamics-related. Because we are just that awesome. (via Rebecca M)
– I made a guest appearance on last week’s Improbable Research podcast, where we talked about bizarre experiments trying to unravel swimming.
– Physics Girl shows us 5 weird ways to blow out a candle. There’s some neat and potentially non-intuitive fluid dynamics involved!
– SciShow offers an explanation of why we sneeze. Spoiler alert: it’s more than just to get rid of irritants.
– Fluid dynamics made the short list for NPR’s Golden Mole awards with the discovery of dancing droplets. Here’s Skunkbear’s take on it.
– Ernst Mach, of Mach number fame, was also a bit of an artist and philosopher. (via @JenLucPiquant)
– It’s not quite fluid dynamics, but this Slow Mo Guys video of spinning burning steel wool might be their most beautiful video yet. Check it out!
(Image credit: NASA)