Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
The Architecture of Music
Photographer Charles Brooks offers a rare glimpse into the interiors of musical instruments in this series. Whether stringed, wind, or percussion, an instrument’s unseen interior structure creates the acoustic resonance needed for their music. Brooks makes these spaces feel like vast cathedrals of sound, which, to the pressure waves emanating from the instruments, they are.…
How a Leak Can Stop Itself
Some leaks can actually stop themselves, and a new analysis shows how. When a vertical pipe has a small hole, water initially spouts out of it, then dribbles, and, finally, drips as the water level in the pipe falls, decreasing the driving pressure of the flow. But the pipe doesn’t have to empty to a…
Splash-Spread Mushrooms
Bird’s nest fungi are tiny — only about a centimeter wide. When mature, they form a curved splash cap containing spore sacs known as peridioles. Then they await rain. When a lucky drop hits the mushroom, it flings the peridioles out of their nest. Some will use sticky cords to cling to nearby blades of…
Gathering Safely
One effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is a renewed interest in the physics of disease transmission and what measures can protect us from airborne respiratory illnesses. This recent study looks at how meetings — whether in classrooms, conferences, or care facilities — can transmit infections. Their mathematical model is able to handle many variables —…
Predicting Contamination in Urban Environs
The canyons of a city’s streets form a complex flow environment. To better understand the risks of a spreading contaminant, researchers simulated a release in lower Manhattan’s urban jungle. The released particles spread due to the dominant wind pattern of the area. Initially, the particles follow the street pattern and stay at a low elevation.…
“Níłtsą́”
Living in the central and western United States, it’s easy to dismiss summer weather as just another storm, but the truth is that this region sees some of the most majestic and spectacular thunderstorms in the world. And no one captures that grandeur better than storm-chasing photographer Mike Olbinski. His latest film is named for…
Washing By Vortex Ring
Spraying a surface clean with a jet of fluid can be an energy-intensive operation. But a recent experiment shows that pulsed flow — which creates vortex rings — could be a viable cleaning alternative. Here we see vortex rings impacting a porous, beaded surface that’s covered in oil. Vortex rings with lots of rotation actually…
Disease and Placental Flows
The human placenta functions as a life-support system for a growing fetus. Despite its frisbee-like appearance, the organ is packed with nearly 10 square meters of blood vessels. On the fetal side, these blood vessels form villous trees where diffusion across the placental boundary exchanges molecules with the maternal blood that fills the space between…
Sandgrouse Soak in Water
Desert-dwelling sandgrouse resemble pigeons or doves, but they have a very different superpower: males can soak in and hold 25 milliliters of water in their feathers, which they carry tens of kilometers back to their chicks. The key to this ability is the microstructure of the bird’s breast feathers. Unlike other species, where feathers have…
Stirring Up Sediment
In early February, Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle passed over the Bellona Plateau in the Coral Sea, stirring up sediment from the shallow reefs there. Once the storm cleared, large swirls of carbonate sediment mixed into the deeper waters around the plateau. As the sediment sinks to depths of kilometers, it will dissolve into the deep ocean…