A smoke-like haze drifts over surreal landscapes in the “Metamorphe” series by Reuben Wu and Jenni Pasanen. Though fluidic in appearance, these pieces are a merger between Wu’s drone light Keep reading
Month: December 2023
Swimming Together
Scientists have long pondered the possibilities of hydrodynamic benefits to the ways fish school. But most analyses of schooling have assumed a fixed spacing that’s far more orderly than what Keep reading
How Dunes Form
On its face, the idea that sand and wind can come together to form massive mountainous dunes seems bizarre. But dunes — and their smaller cousins, ripples — are everywhere, Keep reading
You’re Drunk, Toadlet
Most frogs and toads are excellent jumpers, taking off and landing with a control and grace that rivals elite athletes. Not so for the pumpkin toadlet. These species have become Keep reading
Rifts in Rafts
A raft of particles floating on water has some natural cohesion from particle attraction and capillary action. But when the raft is pulled apart, what happens? Does it break cleanly Keep reading
Aqueous Chandeliers
Colorful dyes falling through water form chandelier-like, branching shapes. These formations are the result of a slight density difference between the heavier dyes and the surrounding water. As the dye Keep reading
Listening to the Sizzle
The sizzle of frying food is familiar to many a cook, and that sound actually conveys a surprising amount of information. In this study, researchers suspended water droplets in hot Keep reading
Treating Water
In an ongoing series, Practical Engineering is looking at how civil engineers deal with sewage and wastewater. In this video, Grady looks at how wastewater gets treated to remove contaminants. Keep reading
Extreme Weather
Many of the exoplanets we’ve observed so far are extreme environments. WASP-121b is known as a hot Jupiter, a gas giant so close to its star that it orbits in Keep reading
Submarine Eruptions
The green-blue plume on the left of this satellite image is an eruption from Kavachi, an underwater volcano in the Solomon Islands. Kavachi’s crest is currently estimated to lie 20 Keep reading