Spin, or the lack thereof, plays a major role in many sports — including tennis, golf, football, baseball, volleyball, and table tennis — because it affects whether flow stays attached Keep reading
Month: January 2025
Paris 2024: Triathlon Swimming
Unlike the swimming competition, Olympic triathletes complete their swim legs in open waters. There are no lane dividers and no rules against drafting off a fellow athlete. Curious to see Keep reading
Paris 2024: Swimsuit Tech
The aughts were an exciting time to watch competitive swimming. Records were falling left and right, especially in 2008 and 2009. The first wave of improvements came around 2000, with Keep reading
Hand-Making Artist-Grade Pastels
I’m constantly fascinated by the intersections of art and fluid mechanics. In this video, we get an inside look at a French atelier making artist-grade pastels using centuries-old methods. And Keep reading
Hole Punch Clouds
At times altocumulus cloud cover is pierced by circular or elongated holes, filled only with the wispiest of virga. These odd holes are known by many names: cavum, fallstreak holes, Keep reading
Junggar Basin Aglow
The low sun angle in this astronaut photo of Junggar Basin shows off the wind- and water-carved landscape. Located in northwestern China, this region is covered in dune fields, appearing Keep reading
“Stomp-Rocket”: A New Type of Eruption
When Kilauea‘s caldera collapsed in 2018, it came with a sequence of 12 closely-timed eruptions that did not match either of the typical volcanic eruption types. Usually, eruptions are either Keep reading
Solar Filament Eruption
From Earth, we rarely glimpse the violent flows of our home star. Here, a filament erupts from the photosphere creating a coronal mass ejection, captured in ultraviolet wavelengths by the Keep reading
“The Art of Flying”
Like schools of fish, starlings gather in massive undulating crowds. Known as murmurations, these gatherings are a type of collective motion. Scientists often try to mimic these groups through simulations Keep reading
Venusian Lava Flows
Venus is often known as Earth’s twin, given its similar size and proximity. But, thanks to its runaway greenhouse effect, Venus is a hellish landscape buried beneath a hot atmosphere Keep reading