Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Droplets From Jets
On the ocean, countless crashing waves are creating bubbles. When they burst, those bubbles generate jets and droplets that spray into the sky, carrying sea salt, dust, and biological material into the atmosphere. Researchers know these droplets and their evaporation are important for understanding environmental processes, but figuring out how to capture that importance in…
“Vorticity 3”
Mike Olbinski’s “Vorticity 3” is a stunning view of storm chasing in the American West. I’ve learned after years in Colorado to always look up because dramatic skies are common here, as is seeing rain falling miles away. Olbinski’s film captures all of that grandeur and more, giving all of us a glimpse inside the…
The Power of a Penguin’s Rectum
When brooding their eggs, penguins can rarely leave the nest, but answering nature’s call is still necessary. To keep the nest clean, Adélie penguins project their feces up to more than a meter away. A new study refines previous calculations on this subject and finds that the penguin’s rectum develops far higher pressures than that…
The Explosive Vaporization Derby
When pressurized, liquids can be superheated to temperatures well above their normal boiling point. When the pressure is released, the liquid will start boiling, sometimes explosively. In this video, researchers explore that dynamic by “racing” a series of liquids against one another. Each racer has been heated to a different temperature beyond the expected boiling…
Artificial Microswimmers
Tiny organisms swim through a world much more viscous than ours. To do so, they swim asymmetrically, often using wave-like motions of tiny, hair-like cilia along their bodies. Mimicking this behavior in artificial swimmers is tough; how would you actuate so many micro-appendages? A new study offers a different method: inducing cilia-like waves using magnetic…
Ghostly Chandeliers
Under a black light, highlighter fluid creates ghostly trails as it drips through water. The vortices that form and break into this chandelier-like shape are the result of density differences between the ink and water. Since ink is heavier than water, it sinks, but as the two fluids flow past, they shear one another, forming elaborate shapes.…
Popping an Oil Balloon
Oil and water don’t mix — or at least they won’t without a lot of effort! In this video, we get to admire just how immiscible these fluids are as oil-filled balloons get burst underwater. Visually, the two bursts are quite spectacular. In the first image, the initial balloon has a sizeable air bubble at…
Mimicking Insect Flight
There’s an oft-repeated tale that science cannot explain how a bumblebee flies. And while that may have been true 80 years ago, when engineers assumed they could apply their knowledge of fixed-wing aircraft to insects, it’s very far from the truth now. Being small, insects use aerodynamic tricks that are very different from the physics…
Branching Light with Soap Bubbles
By shining laser light through soap bubbles, researchers have demonstrated branching flow in light for the first time. This branching occurs when waves travel through a disordered medium where the typical size of the disordered regions is larger than the wave’s length. Previously, scientists had seen evidence of this phenomenon in electrons, sound waves, and…