With the right lighting and eye, billowing streaks of dye and paint can become the ethereal wisps of silk. Artist Susi Sie explores this dichotomy in “Silk,” a short, fluidic film made entirely in macro. Sometimes there’s astounding beauty in the complexity of a fluid filmed up close. (Video and image credit: S. Sie)
Where cold and warm air meet, our atmosphere churns with energy. From the turbulence of supercell thunderclouds to the immense electrical discharge of lightning, there’s much that’s breathtaking about stormy skies. Photographer Dustin Farrell explores them, with a special emphasis on lightning, in his short film, “Transient 2″.
As seen in high-speed video, lightning strikes begin with tree-like leaders that split and spread, searching out the path of least resistance. Once that line from cloud to ground is discovered, electrons flow along a plasma channel that arcs from sky to earth. The estimated temperatures in the core of this plasma reach 50,000 Kelvin, far hotter than the Sun’s surface. It’s this heating that generates the blue-white glow of a lightning bolt. The heating also expands the air nearby explosively, producing the shock wave we hear as a crash of thunder. (Images and video credit: D. Farrell et al.; via Colossal)
In this short video, the artists of Chemical Bouillon explore a broken LCD monitor and its liquid crystals. By sandwiching the fluid between thin, transparent sheets, they create dendritic shapes as the liquid crystals and other fluids (air? ink?) push into one another. There’s a lot here that’s likely connected to the Saffman-Taylor instability, but without knowing more details on the ingredients and set-up, it’s hard to speculate beyond that. (Video and image credit: Chemical Bouillon)
Though they look like jellyfish or space creatures, these images from photographer Linden Gledhill are actually explosions. What you’re seeing is the detonation of hydrogen gas with oxygen. The teal sphere with its wavy surface marks the flame front, and the crisp, stringy edges seen here and there in the foreground are the remains of a soap bubble that held the hydrogen before it sparked. You can see a similar set-up (using methane rather than hydrogen) in action here, and you can see other artistic takes on combustion in previous posts like this one. (Image credit: L. Gledhill, Flickr)
Photographer Jason Wright captures dramatic views of Hawaiian landscapes. Moments like these remind us of the spectacular power of the ocean and atmosphere around us. Just look at all that incredible turbulence! See more of Wright’s work on his Instagram and website. (Image credit: J. Wright; via Colossal)
Artist Susi Sie explores fluidic worlds through her macro lens. In “Emergence,” her focus is on ferrofluids immersed in other liquids. Beginning with tiny droplets traversing the thin fluid channels of a foam, she allows the unique qualities of ferrofluids to slowly take center stage. Dark blobs grow into curvy labyrinths as a magnetic fields come into play. Until ultimately the magnetic nature of the fluid becomes undeniable as scattered droplets elongate into miniature compass needles and swing around to follow the field lines. (Video and image credit: S. Sie)
Rus Khasanov’s latest short film, “Unity,” is all about coming together with droplets coalescing, globules bursting, and colors mixing. Take a glittery, paint-filled break and enjoy some macro-filmed fluid dynamics in action. (Video and image credit: R. Khasanov)
There’s no better way to appreciate our atmosphere than through timelapse, and photographer Mike Olbinski is a master at capturing the beauty and power of nature at work through this medium. In “Vorticity 2″, he highlights two full seasons of storm chasing in an incredible seven-and-a-half minutes. Prepare yourself for dramatic cloudscapes, torrential rains, and even twin tornadoes. This one deserves a watch on the biggest screen you have available. (Image and video credit: M. Olbinski; via Colossal)
“In Perpetual Motion” follows adventure photographer Krystle Wright underwater where the roiling of the ocean sometimes makes time seem to stop, transporting her to another place entirely. To me, the underside of the ocean’s surface evokes storm clouds and memories of sitting at the bottom of the pool staring up at the way light played on the surface. How about you? What do you see when the waves roll overhead? (Video and image credit: K. Wright et al.)
We can’t always see the flows around us, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Audobon Photography Award winner Kathrin Swaboda waited for a cold morning to catch this spectacular photo of a red-winged blackbird’s song. In the morning chill, moisture from the bird’s breath condensed inside the vortex rings it emitted, giving us a glimpse of its sound. (Image credit: K. Swaboda; via Gizmodo; submitted by Joseph S and Stuart H)