Forming clouds requires more than just water vapor; every droplet in a cloud forms around a tiny aerosol particle that serves as a seed that vapor can condense onto. Without Keep reading
Tag: aerosols
Simulating a Sneeze
Sneezing and coughing can spread pathogens both through large droplets and through tiny, airborne aerosols. Understanding how the nasal cavity shapes the aerosol cloud a sneeze produces is critical to Keep reading
Seeding Clouds
In the remote South Atlantic, north of the Antarctic Circle, sit the volcanic Zavodovski and Visokoi islands. Though only roughly 500 and 1000 meters tall, respectively, each island disrupts the Keep reading
Linking Size and Origin in Droplets
Respiratory diseases like measles, flu, tuberculosis, and COVID-19 are all transmitted by droplets. Some are tiny and airborne, capable of traveling long distances. Other drops are larger and only capable Keep reading
Dust Storms
Hot, dry berg winds swept down from the Namibian highlands and sent these plumes of dust flying out to the Atlantic coast. Another plume — white instead of brown — Keep reading
Oil-Covered Bubbles Popping
When bubbles burst, they release smaller droplets from the jet that rebounds upward. Depending on their size, these droplets can fall back down or get lofted upward on air currents Keep reading
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, Keep reading
Airflow in the Opera
Like so many other performers, the singers and musicians of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House were left without a way to safely perform when the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began in early Keep reading
Aerosols and Instruments
Although COVID has disrupted all of our lives, orchestras saw particular disruption, as little was known about how instruments spread aerosol droplets. In this recent study, a team looked at Keep reading
Inhibiting Marine Lightning
Thunderstorms over the ocean have substantially less lightning than a similar storm over land. Scientists wondered whether this difference could be due to lower cloud bases over the ocean or Keep reading