When you run into a fire ant, you’re in for a bad day. But if you run into a colony-sized raft of fire ants, well, that’s going to be a Keep reading
Month: November 2024
A Comet’s Tail Swept Away
On Christmas Day 2021, Comet Leonard put on a show in our skies. Though the comet was a pale streak to the naked eye, photographer Gerald Rhemann caught a striking Keep reading
Aerosols and Instruments
Although COVID has disrupted all of our lives, orchestras saw particular disruption, as little was known about how instruments spread aerosol droplets. In this recent study, a team looked at Keep reading
“Keeping Our Sheet Together”
When two liquid jets collide, they form a falling liquid sheet. Here researchers explore how that sheet breaks up when the liquids involved contain polymers. The intact areas of the Keep reading
Free Contact Lines
How a simple drop of water sits on a surface is a strangely complicated question. The answer depends on the droplet’s size, its chemistry, the roughness of the surface, and Keep reading
Pistol Shrimp Snaps
Gram for gram, few animals can match the power of a pistol shrimp’s snap. When its claw closes, the shrimp ejects a jet of water so fast that the water Keep reading
Dripping Glaze on Ceramics
Candy-colored glaze oozes down the sides of Brian Giniewski’s Drippy Pots. These mugs seem like a great way to the start the day with a little happy, fluidsy action! (Image Keep reading
Martian Glaciers
On Earth, glaciers slide on lubricating layers of water, leaving complex landscapes like fjords and drumlins in their wake. Mars — though once home to enormous ice masses — lacks Keep reading
Jupiter’s Frosted Clouds
New 3D renderings of Jovian clouds show textured swirls akin to a cupcake’s sculpted frosting. The images are based on flyby data from the JunoCam instrument. Because illumination of the Keep reading
Rising Through Turbulence
Plankton — microscopic creatures with often limited swimming abilities — can face daily journeys of hundreds of vertical meters in the ocean. That’s a daunting prospect for any tiny swimmer. Keep reading