Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Reinterpreting Uranus’s Magnetosphere
NASA launched the Voyager 2 probe nearly 50 years ago, and, to date, it’s the only spacecraft to visit icy Uranus. This ice giant is one of our oddest planets — its axis is tilted so that it rotates on its side! — but a new interpretation of Voyager 2’s data suggests it’s not quite…
Growing Downstream
This astronaut photo shows Madagascar’s largest estuary, as of 2024. On the right side, the Betsiboka River flows northwest (right to left, in the image). Less than 100 years ago, most of the estuary was navigable by ships, but now more than half of it is taken up by the river delta. Upstream on the…
“Surfing on the Other Side”
Surfers come in many forms — humans, robots, birds, and even honeybees. Most of the time, though, we see surfers above the water. In this award-winning photo, on the other hand, the surfing penguin shoots by beneath the water, riding beneath the wave’s crest. Keeping pace with the breaking wave should be no trouble for…
A Dandelion-Like Supernova Remnant
In 1181 CE, astronomers in China and Japan recorded a new, short-lived star in the constellation Cassiopeia. After burning for nearly six months, this historic supernova disappeared from the naked eye. It was only in 2013 that an amateur astronomer identified a nebula in the vicinity of that supernova, and, in the years since, astronomers…
Lines of Ice Eddies
In February 2024, the North Atlantic’s sea ice reached its furthest extent of the season, limning the coastline with tens of kilometers of ice. These images — both capturing the Labrador coast on the same day — show the swirling patterns marking the wispy edges of ice field. In this region, the ice is likely…
Running Out of Sand?
Headlines over the past few years have suggested that the world is running out of sand — specifically, that we’re running out of the angular sand grains preferred for concrete. Grady breaks down this idea in this Practical Engineering video, showing that the issue is more complicated than the shape of a sand grain. Yes,…
“Alive Painting”
Artist Akiko Nakayama’s intuitive grasp of fluid dynamics is so good that she manipulates liquids live to musical accompaniment. Her dendritic paintings — made from a combination of acrylic paint and isopropyl alcohol — inspired scientific research papers. There’s no substitute, I’m sure, for seeing her art live, but you can get a taste of…
How Magnetic Fields Shape Core Flows
The Earth’s inner core is a hot, solid iron-rich alloy surrounded by a cooler, liquid outer core. The convection and rotation in this outer core creates our magnetic fields, but those magnetic fields can, in turn, affect the liquid metal flowing inside the Earth. Most of our models for these planetary flows are simplified —…
The Taum Sauk Dam Failure and Its Legacy
Managing an electrical grid is all about balancing the electricity that plants can supply with the instantaneous demands of consumers. If there’s more power available than people need, it needs to get stored somehow. And for decades, the best way to store that excess supply has been in hydroelectric reservoirs like at the Taum Sauk…