Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
“aBiogenesis”
Many theories posit the physical and chemical origins of life. In the short film “aBiogenesis”, CGI artist Markos Kay imagines one such theory — the lipid world theory — in which cellular life began as a soup contained within immiscible fatty membranes. Chemicals trapped within these vesicles interacted and ultimately formed the building blocks of…
Listen to a Martian Dust Devil
A lucky encounter led the Perseverance rover to record the first-ever sound of a dust devil on Mars. The rover happened to have its microphone on (something that only happens a few minutes every month) just as a dust devil swept directly over the rover. Check out the video above to see and hear what…
Black Holes in a Bathtub
Physicist Silke Weinfurtner studies fluids, not for themselves, but for what they can teach us about black holes, cosmic inflation, and quantum gravity. Black holes are notoriously difficult to study directly, but, mathematically speaking, it’s possible to set up a fluid system that behaves in the same way a black hole does. The result is…
Drag Reduction for Swimming Shrimp
Marsh grass shrimp, despite their small size, are zippy swimmers. They move using a series of closely-spaced legs that stroke asynchronously. Researchers found that the flexibility and stiffness of the legs are critical for the shrimp’s efficiency. During the power stroke, the shrimp’s leg is held stiff, maximizing the force it’s able to transfer to…
Spinning Liquids With Lego
One way to explore the effects of spinning liquids at high-speeds is to build an expensive and precise lab apparatus. Another method is to raid the Lego bin. Here, a YouTuber builds ever-more-elaborate Lego constructions to spin a sphere of water. He begins with a relatively straightforward magnetic stirrer that creates a bathtub vortex in…
“Iridescent”
Soft colors and sudden coalescence combine in this short film from Susi Sie’s team. The visuals rely on liquid lenses (likely oil) floating atop a water bath. You can see how the fluids get manipulated in their behind-the-scenes video, which also provides a peek at how the sound effects get made. (Video credit: S. Sie…
Toilet Plumes
Toilet flushes are gross. We’ve seen it before, though not in the same detail as this study. Here, researchers illuminate the spray from the flush of a typical commercial toilet, like those found in many public restrooms. They found that flushing generates a plume of droplets that reaches 1.5 meters in under 8 seconds, producing…
Where Fresh and Salty Meet
Waterways twist through the wetlands of Adair Bay in this astronaut-captured image of northwestern Mexico. The estuary marks the transition between the Great Altar Desert and the Gulf of California. Fresh and salt water mix in the sediment-rich waterways. Mangroves and other salt-tolerant vegetation flourish in the coastal marsh. During low tides, evaporating water leaves…
Bending in Bubbles
Inside a cavity with a square cross-section, bubbles form an array. The shapes of their edges are determined by surface tension and capillarity (lower half of center image). Adding an elastic ribbon into the bubbles (upper half of center image) means that the bubbles’ shapes are determined by a competition between the elasticity of the…
Kelvin-Helmholtz Flows Downhill
Gravity currents carry denser fluids into lighter ones, like cold air drifting under your door in winter or dense fogs flowing downhill in San Francisco. Here, researchers visualize the situation using denser salt water flowing into fresh water. Once the gate separating the two fluids rises, the salt water slides down an artificial slope into…