Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
“Tadpoles: The Big Little Migration”
Amphibians like toads are often indicator species for their ecosystem because they are vulnerable to changes on both land and water. In this short film, videographer Maxwel Hohn follows the migration of western toad tadpoles in British Columbia, showing their daily underwater journey from deep waters, where they can hide, to warmer, shallow waters, where…
Burning Oil Spills With Fire Whirls
Though they are relatively infrequent, large marine oil spills, like 2010’s Deepwater Horizon, are devastating and incredibly difficult to clean up. In many locations, the “best” option for responding to such disasters is burning off the oil before it can absorb enough water to sink. But these floating fires leave behind unburned oil and produce…
Fixing Mosul Dam
Keeping the water in a reservoir is an obvious challenge for any dam. But for Iraq’s Mosul Dam, it’s especially challenging because the dam was built on a foundation of gypsum, a highly water-soluble mineral. Since it was built, Mosul Dam’s water has been eating away at the underlying bedrock, making sinkholes, forcing gaps, and…
The Disappearing Great Salt Lake
Since 1989, Utah’s Great Salt Lake has lost some 70% of its surface area. The exposed lakebed left behind is a source of toxic dust that gets lifted into the air. Researchers are trying to understand what water sources exist beneath the lake and whether they might save the saline lake and its ecosystem from…
Swirls Above the Southern Ocean
In the Southern Ocean, obstacles are sparse. But the ice-cloaked volcano of Peter I Island is tall enough at over 1600 meters to disrupt the wind. At steady wind speeds between about 18 to 54 kilometers per hour, flowing past the island creates vortices that shed from one side and then the other. The result…
“Self-pollination in a flower of thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia)”
Though we rarely notice their movement in the moment, plants, and especially their flowers, are frequently on the move. Here, retired engineer Jay McClellan captures a thymeleaf speedwell flower as it opens, then pushes a stamen toward its pistil, thereby pollinating itself. Like much of the motion executed by plants, these movements come from pumping…
Closing a Venus Fly Trap
The Venus fly trap has long fascinated scientists with its ability to catch fast-moving prey. Just how the plant closes its “trap” leaf so quickly is a matter of debate. A new study gives us more detail–but not complete clarity–about what’s going on. One way that plants move rapidly is by moving water into or…
A Special Trio of Clouds
Off the coast of Alaska, March 19th, 2026 featured a trio of fascinating clouds. Southwest of Anchorage, a cyclonic polar low twisted up from cold polar air centered over warmer waters. This particular storm boasted tropical-storm-force winds and thunderstorms in its center. Further west, long cloud streets formed parallel to the wind as cold dry…
Dropping Oobleck
Oobleck is a peculiar substance. Formed from a suspension of cornstarch particles in water, it can flow like a liquid at low shear rates or jam into a solid under impact. Here, researchers explore what happens to a droplet of oobleck impacting a surface. As they expected, the team found that dilute drops could spread…
The Teton Dam Failure
Engineering failures always leave us with lessons learned. The failure of Teton Dam in 1976 triggered an overhaul in how we manage dam construction and regulation. As Grady describes in this Practical Engineering video, the earthen dam was built with fundamental flaws that allowed water to carve pathways beneath and through the sediment meant to…