Fungal spores sketch out minute air currents in this shortlisted photograph by Avilash Ghosh. The moth atop a mushroom appears to admire the celestial view. In the largely still air Keep reading
Tag: evaporation
Quick-Drying, Fast-Cracking
Water droplets filled with nanoparticles leave behind deposits as they evaporate. Like a coffee ring, particles in the evaporating droplet tend to gather at the drop’s edge (left). As the Keep reading
The Mystery of the Binary Droplet
What goes on inside an evaporating droplet made up of more than one fluid? This is a perennially fascinating question with lots of permutations. In this one, researchers observed water-poor Keep reading
How Cooling Towers Work
Power plants (and other industrial settings) often need to cool water to control plant temperatures. This usually requires cooling towers like the iconic curved towers seen at nuclear power plants. Keep reading
Active Cheerios Self-Propel
The interface where air and water meet is a special world of surface-tension-mediated interactions. Cereal lovers are well-aware of the Cheerios effect, where lightweight O’s tend to attract one another, Keep reading
“There is a crack in everything…”
When millimeter-sized drops of water infused with nanoparticles dry, they leave behind complex and beautiful residues. As water continues evaporating, the residues warp, bend, and crack. In this video, researchers Keep reading
“Last Breath of Autumn”
On a rainy autumn day, Agorastos Papatsanis headed to the forest in search of fungi. There he captured this fairytale-like scene with falling rain and drifting spores. Near the forest Keep reading
Self-Cleaning With Salt Critters
Even freshwater contains trace salts and minerals that cause scaly buildups as they evaporate. Getting rid of the scale usually requires toxic chemicals and/or lots of scrubbing, neither of which Keep reading
How Ferns Spread Themselves
Ferns don’t rely on pollen and pollinators to spread. Instead, they use a little water and a lot of ingenuity, as shown in this video from Deep Look. Peer underneath Keep reading
Skittering Drops
Drip some ethanol on a hot surface, and you’d expect it to spread into a thin layer and evaporate. But that doesn’t always happen, and a recent study looks at Keep reading