“Columbia” is a music video illustrated with fluid dynamics, chemistry, and biology by the Beauty of Science team. It’s got everything from precipitation to crystallization, from infrared imagery of wakes Keep reading
Month: May 2023
Loopy Networks and Bird Lungs
When mammals breathe, air flows back and forth inside our lungs. But in birds that inhale and exhale get transformed into one-directional flow inside their lungs. To figure out how, Keep reading
Signs of Spring
Nothing says, “Goodbye, winter!” quite like watching the ice disappear after a deep freeze. This timelapse video shows ice on Lake Michigan breaking up after a deep freeze. The first Keep reading
Viscoelastic Coiling
Drizzle honey or syrup from high enough, and you’ll see it coil like a liquid rope. This feature of viscous fluids also extends to polymer-filled viscoelastic fluids. But recent work Keep reading
Kelvin Wakes
Whether you’re watching ducks cruise by on a pond or a boat making its way across the ocean, you’ve probably noticed a distinctive V-shaped wake. This shape is known as Keep reading
Sea Swirls by the Shore
Water and sediments swirl in these enhanced satellite photos of China’s Leizhou Peninsula. Color-filtering algorithms have drawn out the details of the flows, but the patterns themselves are real. Tides, Keep reading
Iceberg Melting Depends on Shape
Not all icebergs melt equally. Through a combination of experiment and numerical simulation, researchers have shown that an iceberg’s shape underwater strongly affects how it melts. Specifically, icebergs in a Keep reading
Lava and Life
Kilauea’s 2018 eruption gave us some of the most stunning volcanic footage ever seen, a tradition carried on in this BBC footage. As powerful and destructive as lava is, it’s Keep reading
Inside Hydroplaning
When a tire spins over a wet roadway, pressure at the front of the tire generates a lifting force; if that lift exceeds the weight of the car, it will Keep reading
Planes Lift
Need a little refresher on how airplanes fly? The middle school students of The Nueva School have you covered with their latest science rap parody. They take a look at Keep reading