Many species of spider fly with a technique calling ballooning. We’ve touched on spider flight before, but more recent research adds a new dimension to the phenomenon. Researchers showed that Keep reading
Tag: electrical field
Growing Metal Fingers
Eutectic gallium-indium alloy is a room-temperature liquid metal with an extremely high surface tension. Normally, that high surface tension would keep it from spreading easily. But once the metal oxidizes, Keep reading
Testing Vesicles
In biology, vesicles contain a liquid surrounded by a lipid membrane. The characteristics of that membrane – like its stiffness – can change over time in ways that indicate other changes. For Keep reading
Artificial Microswimmers
In a 1959 lecture entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”, Richard Feynman challenged scientists to create a tiny motor capable of propelling itself. Although artificial microswimmers took several Keep reading
The Rose-Window Instability
This polygonal pattern is known as the rose-window instability. It’s formed between two electrodes – one a needle-like point, the other flat – separated by a layer of oil. The Keep reading
Equatorial Streaming
Here you see a millimeter-sized droplet suspended in a fluid that is more electrically conductive than it. When exposed to a high DC electric field, the suspended drop begins to Keep reading
Electric Coiling
A falling jet of viscous fluid–like honey or syrup–will often coil. This happens when the jet falls quickly enough that it gets skinnier and buckles near the impact point. Triggering Keep reading
Ode to Bubbles
Boiling water plays a major role in the steam cycles we use to generate power. One of the challenges in these systems is that it’s hard to control the rate Keep reading
Liquid Crystal Films
Smectic liquid crystals can form extremely thin films, similar to a soap bubble, that are sensitive to electrically-induced convection. Here an annular smectic film lies between two electrodes. When a Keep reading
Floating Water Bridges
Water bridges that seem to float on air are an electrohydrodynamic phenomenon. By filling two beakers with extremely pure deionized water and applying a large voltage across them, flow is Keep reading