Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
A Mini Jupiter
Astronaut Don Pettit posted this image of a Jupiter-like water globe he created on the International Space Station. In microgravity, surface tension reigns as the water’s supreme force, pulling the mixture of water and food coloring into a perfect sphere. It will be interesting to see a video version of this experiment, so that we…
A Magnetic Tsunami Warning
Tsunamis are devastating natural disasters that can strike with little to no warning for coastlines. Often the first sign of major tsunami is a drop in the sea level as water flows out to join the incoming wave. But researchers have now shown that magnetic fields can signal a coming wave, too. Because seawater is…
Skydiving Salamanders
The wandering salamander can spend its entire 20-year lifespan in the canopy of a coast redwood. When predators come calling, they have a special skill that helps them get away: skydiving. These little amphibians have no webbed appendages and no wings, but they’re some of the most skillful skydivers out there. By carefully repositioning its…
Trapped in Ice
On lake bottoms, decaying matter produces methane and other gases that get caught as bubbles when the water freezes. In liquid form, water is excellent at dissolving gases, but they come out of solution when the molecules freeze. In the arctic, these bubbles form wild, layered patterns like these captured by photographer Jan Erik Waider…
Growing Flexible Stalactites
Icicles and stalactites grow little by little, each layer a testament to the object’s history. Here, researchers explore a similar phenomenon, grown from a dripping liquid. They’re called “flexicles” in homage to their natural counterparts, and they start from a thin layer of elastomer liquid. Though it begins as a liquid, elastomer solidifies over time.…
Predicting Droplet Sizes
Squeeze a bottle of cleaning spray, and the nozzle transforms a liquid jet into a spray of droplets. These droplets come in many sizes, and predicting them is difficult because the droplets’ size distribution depends on the details of how their parent liquid broke up. Shown above is a simplified experimental version of this, beginning…
Where to Follow FYFD Online
Hi, folks! As the social media landscape fractured, I’ve been dragging my feet about making some needed changes. But no longer. As of November 2024, I am no longer updating FYFD’s X/Twitter account. Here are the places you can currently follow FYFD online: Most of those services get autoposts rather than regular check-ups, so I…
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…