Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Deep Breaths Renew Lung Surfactants + A Special Announcement
Taking a deep breath may actually help you breathe easier, according to a new study. When we inhale, air fills our alveoli–tiny balloon-like compartments within our lungs. To make alveoli easier to open, they’re coated in a surfactant chemical produced by our lungs. Just as soap’s surfactant molecules squeezing between water molecules lowers the interface’s…
Spores Get a Lift
Mushrooms have the challenging task of dispersing spores, typically from heights no more than a few centimeters above the ground. At that altitude, viscosity and friction with the ground mean that air barely moves, if it does at all. And mushrooms rely on a wide range of methods, from explosive launches to rain assistance to…
A Rough Day
Winds from the north made for wild conditions at Nazaré in Portugal. Photographer Ben Thouard caught these crashing waves in the late afternoon, when the low sun angle illuminated the spray of the surf. Every year teratons of salt and biomass move from the ocean to the atmosphere, much of it through turbulent wave action…
Wobbling Plasma Could Help Planets Grow
To form planets, the dust and gas around a star has to start clumping up. While there are many theories as to how this could happen, it’s a difficult process to observe. A recent study shows that a magnetorotational (MR) instability could do the job. The team used a Taylor-Couette set-up (where an inner cylinder…
Draining Topography is Hard
At first glance, draining an ocean seems simple like a simple problem: just put a drain at the lowest point. But, as shown in this Minute Physics video, the problem is harder than it sounds because drainage depends not just on a point’s elevation but also on the path that leads to the drain. Fortunately,…
Wave Energy Through the Meniscus
Even small changes to a meniscus can change how much wave energy passes through it. A new study systemically tests how meniscus size and shape affects the transmission of incoming waves. As seen above, the meniscus was formed on a suspended barrier. By changing the barrier size and wettability as well as the characteristics of…
Fluids at the Angstrom-Scale
We spend our lives dealing with fluids at a scale where the motion of individual molecules is beneath our notice. There’s no reason to track every molecule of water moving through a municipal pipe; it’s effectively impossible, anyhow! But once you are dealing with pipes that are small enough–below about 1 nanometer in diameter–fluids have…
A Gentoo Flotilla
If you’re used to seeing penguins on land, their speed and grace in the water can surprise. Penguins are even capable of extra bursts of speed through supercavitation. They trap air beneath their feathers and then release it underwater when they need to move faster. Their coating of bubbles reduces their drag and gives them…
Why Sharper Knives Mean Fewer Onion Tears
Onions are a well-known source of tears for many a cook. And while the chemical source of their power–onions release a chemical that reacts in our eyes to produce tears–has been known for years, no one has looked at the fluid dynamics in the process until now. As seen above, a knife piercing the onion’s…
Floating Bridges
For most of history, floating bridges have been temporary structures, often used by militaries crossing water, but over the course of the twentieth century, engineers learned to build more permanent floating bridges. These structures require very particular conditions–calm waters, minimal ice, and so on–but they can be great options for crossing lakes where the traditional…