Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
The Japanese Pufferfish
[original media no longer available] If you’ve ever dived or snorkeled over a sandy lake or ocean bottom, you’ve probably seen some neat patterns there. But it’s hard to compete with the Japanese pufferfish for pure artistry. This small fish creates enormous and elaborate designs in the sand in order to attract a mate. The…
A Real Tatooine
Since at least the release of “Star Wars”, we have wondered what life would be like on a circumbinary planet – a planet orbiting two stars. In the past few decades, we have discovered several such planets, but we are still in the early days of modeling the climate of these worlds. One recent study…
Sorting by Bubble
Microfluidic devices, also known as labs-on-a-chip, require clever techniques for processes like sorting particles by size. One such technique uses an oscillating bubble to sort particles. When the bubble vibrates back and forth (left) it creates what’s known as a streaming flow – large regions of recirculation (shown as gray ellipses in the right image).…
Asperitas Sunset
Asperitas clouds, previously known as undulatus asperatus, are the most recently recognized cloud type. These clouds make the sky look like the ocean rolling in waves. Photographer Mike Olbinski, on a recent storm chase earlier this month, caught these spectacular asperitas clouds near sunset. The clouds’ effect is unusual under normal circumstances and completely surreal…
Mosquito Flight
Mosquitoes are unusual fliers. Their wings are long and skinny, and they beat at around 700 strokes a second – incredibly quickly for their size. Examining how they move has uncovered some interesting mechanics. Despite their short stroke length, the mosquito generates a lot of lift on both its upstroke (when the wing is moving…
Eroding Candy
When you pop a hard candy in your mouth, you probably don’t give much thought to the fluid dynamics involved in dissolving it. The series above shows a hard candy suspended in water being slowly eaten away. As sugars in the candy dissolve into the water, the fluid becomes denser and falls away. This creates…
Perijove
The Juno spacecraft continues to send back incredible photos of Jupiter’s atmosphere. This video animates images from the sixth close pass of Jupiter to give you a sense of what Juno sees as it swoops by our system’s largest planet. The trajectory passes from the north pole to the south, showing Jupiter’s whitish zones, dark…
Capillary Action in Microgravity
On Earth, gravity dominates over many fluid effects, but in microgravity a different picture emerges. This animation shows a two-channel apparatus partially filled with silicone oil being dropped. While in free-fall, the liquid experiences microgravity conditions and the height of the fluid in the two connected channels changes. The oil meniscus climbs up the walls…
Building Labs on a Chip
In their second video on microfluidics, the Lutetium Project takes viewers inside the process of creating microfluidic circuits, also known as labs-on-a-chip. When you want to build pipes only a few microns across, you need to use special techniques. As the video shows, manufacturing starts with photolithography, a process used to selectively mask parts of…
Stabilizing Films
Liquids don’t typically survive very long as thin films. If you try to make one from water, gravity drains it away immediately. (Not so in space.) To make a liquid film stick around, we add surfactants like soap. These extra molecules congregate at the surface of the film and provide a stabilizing force to oppose…