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
Strings of Swirls
Von Karman vortex streets are the rows of alternating vortices shed off isolated objects interrupting a flow. Here, the volcanic peaks of Cabo Verde disrupt an atmospheric flow accustomed to Keep reading
Viscoplastic Drop Impact
There are many materials that don’t behave exactly as a fluid or a solid, instead displaying characteristics of both. In this video, we see drops of hair gel falling into Keep reading
Flexible Wings Aid Butterfly Flight
Butterflies are some of the oddest flyers of the insect world, given the large size of their wings relative to their bodies. That could be a recipe for inefficient flight, Keep reading
Chasing Tornadoes
Tornadoes are some of the most powerful storms on Earth. Their difficult-to-predict nature means that we still have a relatively scant understanding of exactly how they form. We know the Keep reading
Inside Drying Wood
Wood must dry before it can be used in most applications, but with its complex internal structure exactly how wood dries out has been unclear. New experiments combining MRI and Keep reading
“Chocolate Lullaby”
In this music video for the song “Chocolate Lullaby,” the Macro Room team feature all kinds of fluid dynamical phenomena. It begins with pouring viscous fluids, which, like honey or Keep reading
Interview: Fountain Pen Physics
It’s not much of a secret that I love fountain pens. Recently, I got to combine two of my passions by explaining fountain pen physics on the Stationery Orbit podcast. Keep reading