From above, we see an all-new perspective on the flows of air and water that shape our world. Although they look like abstract art, these aerial photographs of Namibia by Leah Kennedy show rippling dunes and spreading fingers of water. Linear dunes like these grow when the prevailing winds are always from the same direction. Over time, rivers meander, always seeking new drainage paths. Patterns like these are probably driven by periodic flooding. (Image credit: L. Kennedy; via Colossal)
The atmosphere above us is a thin layer enclosing our planet, but it roils with activity and energy. Photographer Camille Seamon captures the grandeur of our turbulent skies in her storm shots. These dramatic atmospheric vistas – including mammatus clouds (top), swirling supercells (middle), and turbulent storm clouds (bottom) – are all driven by the flow of heat and moisture. (Image credit: C. Seaman; via Colossal)
In “Float” artist Susi Sie uses water and oil to create a whimsical landscape of bubbles and droplets. Coalescence is a major player in the action, though Sie uses some clever time manipulations to make her bubbles and droplets multiply as well. Watching coalescence in reverse feels like seeing mitosis happen before your eyes. (Video and image credit: S. Sie)
One day calligrapher Mae Nguyen accidentally squeezed a droplet out of her waterbrush pen, and a fun, new technique was born. Nguyen sometimes uses the arrays of droplets to paint and other times blows on them to create colorful splatters, like in the video above. I’d love to see the latter technique, in particular, in slow motion! I expect there is some really cool mixing as the droplets coalesce. Check out more of Nguyen’s work on her website and Instagram account. (Video credit: M. Nguyen)
Many chemical reactions produce gases as a stream of bubbles out of a solution. Here we see the electrolysis of an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH), which produces hydrogen gas on the cathode (left) and oxygen gas on the anode (right). In timelapse, the gas bubbles nucleate on the electrode, slowly growing larger. Once the the bubbles are large enough to detach, though, they rise so quickly they look like they disappear! The large buoyant forces on them drive that brief journey to the surface. By contrast, the smaller bubbles rise slowly, held back by their lesser buoyancy and the viscous drag they experience. (Video and image credit: Beauty of Science)
Glacial river veins wend and meander through these aerial photographs of Iceland by photographer Stas Bartnikas. Rivers naturally change their course over time, but here seasonal melts and the slow grinding of glaciers adds further chaos to the scene. Captured from above, these landscapes show the scars of past flows. (Image credit: S. Bartnikas; via Colossal)
In “Hydrophytes,” industrial designer Nicole Hone imagines a future in which we’ve designed aquatic plants to counter some of the effects of climate change. To create her plants, Hone designed them with digital tools, then printed them with multi-material 3D printers. Their movements are brought to life with pneumatic pumps that fill and collapse them in response to external interactions. The motion and character of these imagined plants is astounding; they truly seem to be alive. It’s an incredible intersection of science, art, and technology. Check out the full film below. (Image and video credit: N. Hone; via Colossal)
Schlieren photography has an almost magical feeling to it because it enables us to see the invisible – like shock waves and the tiny currents of heat that rise from our skin. But it can also reveal new perspectives on things that aren’t invisible. Here we see soap bubbles viewed through the lens of a schlieren set-up. Schlieren is sensitive to small changes in density, so instead of appearing in their usual rainbow iridescence, the bubbles look glass-like and filled with tiny currents and bubbles. What we’re seeing are some of the many tiny flow variations across the surface of a soap bubble. They’re driven by a combination of forces – gravity, temperature, and surface tension variations, to name a few. Seen in video, you can really appreciate just how dynamic a thin soap film is! (Image credit and submission: L. Gledhill, video version, more stills)
What looks like Baroque paintings are, in fact, underwater photographs in Christy Lee Rogers’ new “Muses” series. By photographing her models underwater at night, Rogers creates a unique, almost dream-like atmosphere that owes its effect to the interplay of light and water. The billowing fabric and chaotic motion come from the water itself, and the dramatic lighting relies on the reflection and refraction going on between the water and its surface. (Image credit: C. Rogers; via Colossal)
“Volumes” is an experimental art film by Maxim Zhestkov using physics-based particle animation. Waves and unseen forces send billions of color-changing particles aloft in the film. The motions – especially the way the particles seem to tear themselves – are reminiscent of a complex fluid, like yogurt. These substances have both liquid-like (viscous) and solid-like (elastic) properties depending on the forces they experience. Zhestkov’s particles are similar; they move like a fluid but tear more like a solid.
I particularly like the sequence beginning at 1:30. The upwelling of particles leaves behind a lower layer that looks like a snapshot of convection in a planetary mantle while the upper layer resembles the clash of ocean waves. The whole film is quite mesmerizing. Check it out! (Video and image credit: M. Zhestkov; GIFs via Colossal)