Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Insects Taking Flight
As awkward as they look sometimes, insects are amazing fliers. In this video from Ant Lab, we see all kinds of insects taking flight. Some, like the mantis, execute flying leaps to get in the air, whereas weevils begin flapping from a tripod stance. Watching these videos I’m always struck by how flexible insect wings…
Jovian Circulation
Jupiter‘s atmosphere remains quite mysterious, due to our limited ability to measure the depths of the gas giant’s clouds. But measurements from the Juno spacecraft are continuing to shape researchers’ understanding of our massive neighbor. By tracking ammonia distributions in Jupiter’s belts and zones, a team has found a series of circulation cells similar to…
Filming the Brinicle
It may have been 10 years since the BBC filmed the first timelapse of a growing brinicle, but the footage is just as amazing now as it was then! This video gives you the behind-the-scenes story of what it took to capture this natural wonder under the Antarctic ice. It’s incredible to see the shots…
“The Green Reapers”
This short film from artist Thomas Blanchard focuses on carnivorous plants and their prey. These plants — including Venus fly traps, sundews, and pitcher plants — rely on fluids both to attract and capture their prey. Plants like the Venus fly trap build turgor pressure in their cells to move and prop open their leaves.…
Driven From Equilibrium
With the right application of force, liquids can take on shapes that defy our intuition. Here researchers sandwiched two immiscible oils between glass slides and applied an electric field. Because the two oils have different electrical responses, charges build along the interface between them. These charges lead to non-trivial electrohydrodynamic flows and a multitude of…
The Bubbly Escape
Sometimes experiments don’t work as planned and, instead of answers, they lead to more questions. In this video, we see an experiment looking at an air bubble trapped beneath a cone. It’s the same situation you get by holding a mug upside-down in a sink full of water but with inclined walls. As the cone…
Spreading By Island
How does a droplet sinking through an immiscible liquid settle onto a surface? Conventional wisdom suggests that the settling drop will slowly squeeze the ambient fluid film out of the way, form a liquid bridge to the solid beneath, and spread onto the surface. But for some droplets, that’s not how it goes. While watching…
Ice and Dunes
Although dunes are usually associated with scorching climates, they can form in any desert, including in the frozen steppes of western Mongolia. This sunrise photo, taken by an astronaut aboard the ISS, shows Ulaagchinii Khar Nuur. The ice-covered Khar Nuur Lake surrounds two islands, Big and Small Avgash, and cold dunes form textured streaks on…
Yosemite in Winter
Waterfalls, fog, and snow wreathe Yosemite in these beautiful winter landscapes by photographer Michael Shainblum. I love how the tendrils of water and mist give you a real sense of the flow, even in still photos. Check out more of Shainblum’s photography on his Instagram and go behind-the-scenes on his Yosemite trip with this video.…
Falling Pancake Drops
Despite their round appearance, the droplets you see here are actually shaped like little pancakes. They’re sandwiched inside a Hele-Shaw cell, essentially two plates with a viscous fluid between them. As these droplets fall through the cell, some remain steady and rounded (Image 1), while others experience instabilities (Images 2 and 3). By varying the…