Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Staying Cool in the Sun
For humans, staying cool in the summer heat often means expending energy on air conditioners, fans, and other cooling devices. But scientists are exploring other, less energy-intense options for beating the heat. At a conference, researchers recently unveiled a plant-based bi-layer film that’s able to stay about 7 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than its surroundings while…
Fresh Fissures
North of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall, a new volcanic fissure opened in July 2023. This drone footage from Isak Finnbogason captures that fissure on its first night. Lava fountains jet from the earth, forming a complex, slow-moving river. The similarities between flowing lava and more common liquids like water never ceases to fascinate me. Even with the…
Testing Turbulence’s Limits
Understanding chaotic, turbulent flows has long challenged scientists and engineers due to their sheer complexity. In turbulent flows, energy cascades from the largest scales — like the kilometer-size cross-section of a cloud — to the very smallest scales, less than a millimeter in size, where viscosity transforms the flow’s motion to heat. For nearly a…
Atlantic Blooms
In April 2023, swirls of green and turquoise burst into vivid color in the Atlantic. Much of the color comes from a phytoplankton bloom. Although phytoplankton are individually microscopic, they form eddies a hundred kilometers across that are visible from space. In detailed images like the one above (available here in full resolution) these swirls…
Sliding on Sand
Getting around on sandy slopes is no easy feat. On steep inclines, even small disturbances will cause an avalanche. The predatory antlion takes advantage of this fact by building a conical pit that makes ants that walk in slide down into its waiting jaws. But a new study shows that it’s more than just pressure…
Jovian Swirls
Jupiter, our solar system’s stormiest planet, shares many similarities with Earth. But where Earth’s strongest storms are cyclones centered on low-pressure regions, Jupiter’s longest and strongest storms are anti-cyclones, driven by areas of high pressure. They’re often massive — larger than the entire Earth — and persist for weeks, months, or years. This processed image…
“Discovery”
Colors stream and mix in Rus Khasanov’s short film “Discovery.” Droplet-like liquid lenses float in the mixture until ethanol or other ingredients cause them to spontaneously rupture, sending their interior flowing outward until the lens reaches a new equilibrium. Gradients in surface tension guide Marangoni flows across the screen. There’s never-ending beauty in the world…
Bubble Growth, Inspired By Art
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French painters like Chardin and Manet had a certain fascination with bubble-blowing physics. Both left behind artwork depicting children blowing soap bubbles through straws. Now researchers are exploring this bubble-making method in a recent study. To blow a bubble from a straw or other narrow constriction, there are three basic stages. In…
The Physics of Vowels
Blow across the top of a glass bottle, and you’ll get a whistle-like sound. Put some liquid in there and the pitch of the sound changes. Our vocal tracts are basically the same thing: a tube with a hole at the end. But as Joe Hanson shows in this Be Smart video, our ability to…
Puddle Depth Matters for Stalagmites
In a cave, mineral-rich water drips from the ceiling, spreading ions used to build stalagmites. A recent study considers how the depth of a pool affects the droplet’s splash and how material from the droplet spreads. The authors found several scenarios that vary widely depending on pool depth. A drop falling into a shallow pool…