Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Paris 2024: Swimsuit Tech
The aughts were an exciting time to watch competitive swimming. Records were falling left and right, especially in 2008 and 2009. The first wave of improvements came around 2000, with the introduction of full-body swimwear. According to one analysis, men’s freestyle swimming performances improved by about 1% with that change. The next big leap came…
Hand-Making Artist-Grade Pastels
I’m constantly fascinated by the intersections of art and fluid mechanics. In this video, we get an inside look at a French atelier making artist-grade pastels using centuries-old methods. And although the final product doesn’t appear to have much to do with fluids — compared to, say, paint — the process behind each pastel involves…
Hole Punch Clouds
At times altocumulus cloud cover is pierced by circular or elongated holes, filled only with the wispiest of virga. These odd holes are known by many names: cavum, fallstreak holes, and hole punch clouds. Long-running debates about these clouds’ origins were put to rest some 14 years ago, after scientists showed they were triggered by…
Junggar Basin Aglow
The low sun angle in this astronaut photo of Junggar Basin shows off the wind- and water-carved landscape. Located in northwestern China, this region is covered in dune fields, appearing along the top and bottom of the image. The uplifted area in the top half of the image is separated by sedimentary layers that lie…
“Stomp-Rocket”: A New Type of Eruption
When Kilauea‘s caldera collapsed in 2018, it came with a sequence of 12 closely-timed eruptions that did not match either of the typical volcanic eruption types. Usually, eruptions are either magmatic — caused by rising magma — or phreatic — caused by groundwater flash-boiling into steam. The data from Kilauea matched neither type. Instead, scientists…
Solar Filament Eruption
From Earth, we rarely glimpse the violent flows of our home star. Here, a filament erupts from the photosphere creating a coronal mass ejection, captured in ultraviolet wavelengths by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. This particular eruption took place in 2012, and, while it was not aimed at the Earth, it did create auroras here a…
“The Art of Flying”
Like schools of fish, starlings gather in massive undulating crowds. Known as murmurations, these gatherings are a type of collective motion. Scientists often try to mimic these groups through simulations and lab experiments where individuals in a swarm obey simple rules that depend only on observing their neighbors. It requires very little, it turns out,…
Venusian Lava Flows
Venus is often known as Earth’s twin, given its similar size and proximity. But, thanks to its runaway greenhouse effect, Venus is a hellish landscape buried beneath a hot atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. Unlike Earth, Venus is not tectonically active, though it does have active volcanoes. A recent study re-examined synthetic aperture…
Playing With Water in 2D Containers
Once again Steve Mould is putting his prototyping skills to use to work out what goes on inside tricky containers. Here he looks at a “magic” wizard’s cup where — like the assassin’s teapot — cleverly placed holes in the side of the cup can block or allow air’s escape. In the wizard’s cup this…
Saving Energy By Following a Leader
Scientists have long suspected that birds save energy by following a leader — think of the V-shaped flight formation used by geese — but a new study captures that savings directly. The team studied starlings, flying singly or in groups of two or three, in a special wind tunnel. Each bird wore a tiny backpack…