Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Melting Permafrost Stains Alaskan Rivers Orange
The swiftly melting permafrost of the Arctic is releasing toxic metals like zinc, cadmium, and iron into Alaskan waterways. The contaminant levels are so high that it’s staining many rivers orange — a feature that can be seen from space. A new study identified at least 75 affected rivers in the Brooks mountain range. In…
Helping Fish Bypass Hydro Power Dams
Many dams in the U.S. were built at a time when their ecological impact was not a major concern. But, thanks to ongoing efforts to study affected species and upgrade infrastructure, many dams now balance human energy needs with the needs of non-humans, like migratory fish populations. In this video, Grady from Practical Engineering takes…
Bubblegum Sculptures
Like soap bubbles, bubbles blown in gum are ephemeral, lasting only seconds. Their break-up mechanism is quite different, though. Where surface tension rips a bubble apart once it is pierced, bubblegum instead deflates and wrinkles around a hole that does not grow, thanks to the elasticity of the gum. This photographic series by Suzanne Saroff…
Venus Flower Basket Sponges
Venus flower basket sponges have an elaborate, vase-like skeleton pocked with holes that allow water to pass through the organism. A recent numerical study looked at how the sponge’s shape deflects incoming (horizontal) ocean currents into a vertical flow the sponge can use to filter out food. The sponges’ structure is porous and lined with…
Growing Hydrogels in an Active Fluid
Active nematic fluids borrow their ingredients from biology. Using long, rigid microtubules and kinesin motor proteins capable of cross-linking between and “walking” along tubules, researchers create these complex flow patterns. Here, a team took the system a step further by seeding the flow with a hydrogel that turns into a polymer when exposed to light.…
Slipping Along Enceladus
Home to a sub-surface ocean, Saturn‘s moon Enceladus is a fascinating candidate for life in our solar system. As it orbits Saturn, plumes periodically shoot out long surface features known as tiger stripes that sit near the icy moon’s southern pole. A recent study, based on numerical simulation, suggests a geophysical mechanism that could account…
Soyuz Exhaust
Here, a Soyuz rocket takes off in 2023, carrying three of the Expedition 70 crew to the International Space Station. This initial stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle uses four identical rocket boosters lashed around the second stage core. Each of the boosters has a rocket engine with four combustion chambers (and thus four exhaust…
“Earth’s Treasure”
Streams of blue and yellow braid across Iceland’s volcanic landscape in this award-winning photo from Miki Spitzer. Glacial water shows an icy blue and sediments glisten in gold. Together, their interplay creates an arresting delta viewed from above. (Image credit: M. Spitzer; via WNPA)
Searching for Stability in Cleaner Flames
Spiking natural gas power plants with hydrogen could help them burn cleaner as we transition away from carbon power. But burners in power plants and jet engines can be extremely finicky, thanks to thermoacoustic instabilities. As a flame burns, it can sputter and fluctuate in its heat output. That creates pressure oscillations (which we sometimes…
The Solar Corona in Stunning Detail
The ESA’s Solar Orbiter captured this beautifully detailed video of our sun‘s corona last September. The Solar Orbiter took this footage from about 43 million kilometers away, a third of the distance between the sun and the Earth. Scattered across the visible surface are fluffy, lace-like features known as coronal moss. Along the curving horizon,…