Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Recreating Flocks
Birds, fish, and other creatures form amazing, undulating swarms of individuals. How these collectives comes together and move continues to fascinate scientists. Here, researchers look at simple particles with two “instructions,” if you will. One causes the particle to self-navigate toward a target; the other causes short-range repulsion if the particle gets too close to…
The Odd Air Bubbles
Though it looks like a strange underwater panorama, this image by photographer Marek Miś actually captures air bubbles trapped beneath the slip cover of a microscope slide smeared with drying callus remover. According to Miś, “Callus remover is one of my favourite agents for taking micrographs. It can create unusual crystalline forms. This time I…
Contactless Bending
Using electromagnetism, researchers are bending and shaping soft liquid wires even against gravity. The team used galinstan — an alloy of gallium, indium, and tin that remains liquid at room temperature. On its own, galinstan has a high surface tension and forms droplets. But with a voltage applied, that surface tension is suppressed, making the…
Flying With Geese
Some people fly with geese to train them for wind tunnel tests, and some people fly with them to teach them safer migratory paths. Today’s video focuses on the latter, specifically conservationist Christian Moullec, who has spent decades living and flying with lesser white-fronted geese as part of an effort to save the threatened species.…
Mimicking Asteroids
In nature, objects like asteroids, black holes, and atomic nuclei can get distorted when spinning rapidly. Researchers are exploring these objects using a new model platform: particle rafts levitated by sound. The individual particles are less than a millimeter wide and tend to clump together due to the scattering of sound waves off neighboring particles.…
Pumping Waste
Sewage systems rely on gravity to remove waste from our homes and carry it toward treatment plants. But that constant downward slope can’t always be maintained. Sometimes we have to bring the sewage back up to the surface to process it. For that, modern systems rely on pumps and other equipment to move the challenging…
“Velocity”
In this short film by Vadim Sherbakov, macro shots of glittery ink and pigments look like astronomical vistas. The title of the film, “Velocity,” is spot on; every shot is full of flow and motion driven by the mixture of ink, alcohol, soap, and other fluids. That means lots of surface-tension-driven flow, and the glitter…
Moving By (Intestinal) Wave
A word of warning: today’s post includes visuals of digestion taking place in (non-human) embryonic intestines. Our bodies rely on waves driven by muscle contractions to move both fluids and solids, whether through the esophagus, the ureter, the fallopian tubes, or the intestines. In areas where mixing is unnecessary, those waves move in a single…
Tidal Vortices
Local topography in the Sea of Okhotsk funnels water to create some of the largest diurnal tides in the world — nearly 14 meters! The currents rushing past islands and outcrops create swirling vortices like the ones seen in this natural-color satellite image. In some places, you can even see multiple vortices, strung together into…
Perching Aerodynamics
When birds come in for a landing, they pitch back and heave their wings as they come to a stop in a perching maneuver. Some birds, researchers noticed, partially fold their wings during the move, creating what’s known as a swept wing. Curious as to the effect of this sweep, the team recreated the wing…