Whether you’re cooking with ceramic, Teflon, or a well-seasoned cast iron pan, it seems like food always wants to stick. It’s not your imagination: it’s fluid dynamics. As the thin Keep reading
“Mini Planets”
In Thomas Blanchard’s “Mini Planets” oil-coated paint droplets swirl on colorful backgrounds. With band-like streaks, they truly do look like miniature planets rotating. I love that a few of them Keep reading
When Honey Flows Faster Than Water
With its high viscosity, no one would ever pick honey to beat water in a race. But a new study shows there’s at least one circumstance where honey wins: inside Keep reading
Brown Dwarfs and Their Stripes
Brown dwarfs are neither stars nor gas giants but something in between. Our two nearest brown dwarf neighbors are roughly equivalent to Jupiter in size but about 30 times more Keep reading
Ultrasonic Vibrations
Ultrafast vibrations can break up droplets, mix fluids, and even tear voids in a liquid. Here, the Slow Mo Guys demonstrate each of these using an ultrasonic homogenizer, a piece Keep reading
How Wombats Make Stackable Feces
Wombats are unique among the animal kingdom for their ability to produce cubic feces approximately the size and shape of dice. Researchers found that wombats accomplish this geometric feat thanks Keep reading
“Satellike”
When watching Roman De Giuli’s “Satellike,” you may think you’re looking at satellite imagery of Earth. In reality, each sequence is a combination of watery ink and dried paint on Keep reading
Microfluidic Pac-Man
Researchers are using coalescence to guide microdroplets through a miniature maze, a la Pac-Man. To steer the main droplet, they place a smaller droplet nearby in the direction they want Keep reading
Snowflake Velocimetry
In our era of remote learning, students don’t always have a chance to do hands-on lab experiments in the usual fashion. But that doesn’t mean they can’t explore important flow Keep reading
This Is Your Brain
The human brain, like an egg, consists of soft matter bathed in a fluid and encased in a hard shell. To better understand how our brains respond to sudden accelerations, Keep reading