A raft of mosquito eggs floats on water in this award-winning image by Barry Webb. Capillary effects stretch and distort the interface, creating a complicated meniscus where the eggs meet Keep reading
Tag: capillary action
Enhancing the Cheerios Effect
The Cheerios in your morning cereal clump together with one another and the bowl’s wall due to an attractive force caused by the curvature of their menisci. A recent study Keep reading
Sandgrouse Soak in Water
Desert-dwelling sandgrouse resemble pigeons or doves, but they have a very different superpower: males can soak in and hold 25 milliliters of water in their feathers, which they carry tens Keep reading
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 Keep reading
Escaping the Flood
Fire ants clump together into giant rafts to stay alive during floods. But these rafts won’t form with just any number of ants. Researchers found that individual ants will actually Keep reading
Programmable Capillary Action
Capillary action combines the cohesive forces within a liquid and the adhesive forces between a liquid and solid to enable a liquid to fill narrow spaces, even against the force Keep reading
Why Aren’t Trees Taller?
Trees are incredible organisms, with some species capable of growing more than 100 meters in height. But how do trees get so big and why don’t they grow even taller? Keep reading
Particle-filled Splashes
Adding particles to a liquid can significantly alter its splash dynamics, as shown in this new study. In the first image, a purely-liquid droplet spreads on impact into a thin Keep reading
Breaking Up Granular Rafts
Particles at a fluid interface will often gather into a collection known as a granular raft. The geometry of the interface where it meets individual particles, combined with the surface Keep reading
The Disappearing Cotton Candy
Moisture is cotton candy’s natural enemy. The spun sugar dissolves incredibly quickly under the influence of even a couple drops of water. Why that’s so is clearer when looking at Keep reading