This gorgeous, natural-color image shows Lake Balkhash in southeastern Kazakhstan. In early March, the ice on the lake was beginning to break up, revealing glimpses of swirling sediment below the Keep reading
Vortex Rings on V-Shaped Walls
Vortex ring impacts are eternally fascinating. Here, researchers explore what happens when a vortex ring encounters a V-shaped wall. Because the outer portions of the vortex ring hit the wall Keep reading
Self-Started Siphoning
Here’s a fun activity you can do while you #StayHome: build a self-starting siphon. Michael from VSauce explains how in this video. Moving fluids from one location to another is Keep reading
Lava Barriers
Inspired by protecting people and property from lava flows, researchers investigated how viscous fluids flow downhill past large obstacles. As seen above, when the obstacle is tall enough that the Keep reading
The Great Haboob Chase
Few sights look as apocalyptic as the leading edge of an incoming dust storm. Known as a haboob, these storms form when a downdraft spreads along the ground, picking up Keep reading
Stratospheric Effects of Wildfires
Australia’s bushfires from earlier this year are offering new insights into how pyrocumulonimbus clouds can affect our stratosphere. A massive, uncontrolled blaze between December 29th and January 4th generated a Keep reading
Hummingbird Flight in Slow Motion
Hummingbirds are impressive, acrobatic flyers. Their figure-8 wing stroke pattern produces about 70% of their lift on the downstroke, and the remainder during the backward upstroke. But their tails and Keep reading
Recession at Taku Glacier
A glacier’s snowline marks the location where the amount of summer melting and accumulated snowmass are equal. If, over the course of a season, a glacier experiences more snowfall than melting, its Keep reading
Simulating Better Breaking Waves
In the ocean, breaking waves trap air into bubbles that then cluster into foam, but conventional simulations don’t capture this foaminess. For bubbles to cluster into foam, there has to Keep reading
Psychedelic Soap Film
Macro images of a soap film burst with color. Because the color comes from interference between light waves bouncing off the inner and outer surfaces of the soap film, the Keep reading