FYFD

Tag: fluids as art

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    “Volcano Pilot”

    Today’s video is something a little different. Rather than looking at fluids and their physics directly, we’ll take a step back and think about how people relate to the subject. This short film, “Volcano Pilot,” follows Haraldur Unason Diego as he reflects on his life’s work. It’s a beautiful and moving glimpse of the life and philosophy of a small aircraft pilot. Many people never have the opportunity to see the world from cockpit of a Cessna or similar small aircraft, and I think there are few experiences that can better connect someone to the fluids-in-action that is aviation. (Image and video credit: M. Aberra et al.)

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    Inside Viscous Fingers

    Sandwich a viscous fluid between two transparent plates and then inject a second, less viscous fluid. This is the classic set-up for the Saffman-Taylor instability, a well-studied flow in which the interface between the two fluids forms a wavy edge that develops into fingers. Despite its long history, though, there is still more to learn, as shown in this video. Here, researchers alternately injected a dyed and undyed version of the less viscous fluid. The result (Image 3) is a set of concentric dye rings that show how the fluid moves far from the fingers along the edge. Notice that the waviness of the fingers appears in the flowing fluid well before it approaches the interface. (Image and video credit: S. Gowan et al.)

  • Turquoise Eddies

    Turquoise Eddies

    During the summer months, the Barents Sea between Norway and Russia is streaked with blue and teal swirls. These beautiful patterns are the result of a phytoplankton bloom, as viewed by earth-observing satellites (with a little color enhancement). Although each cell in the bloom is only nanometers across, their collective presence is visible from space! They also act as tracers in the water, revealing the swirling flow patterns present there. (Image credit: J. Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory)

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    Strandbeest Evolution

    Each spring, artist Theo Jansen releases his latest batch of wind-driven kinetic sculptures — known as Strandbeests — on a Dutch beach. This video compilation shows some of the newest strandbeests, including a variety of flying strandbeest. I find their motion mesmerizing. Some stroll, some undulate, some galumph their way across the the sands. Given their size — much larger than a person and often weighing 180 kilograms — it’s amazing to see them driven entirely by the wind through their sails. (Video and image credit: T. Jansen; via Colossal)

  • Stormy Skies

    Stormy Skies

    Photographer Mitch Dobrowner captures the majestic and terrifying power of storms in his black and white images. Towering turbulence, swirling vortices, and convective clouds abound. See more of his work at his website and Instagram. (Image credit: M. Dobrowner; via Colossal)

  • Ant Bridge

    Ant Bridge

    As red ants scout their way to food, the terrain can sometimes get in the way. Here a leading scout has made their body into a bridge that their fellows can use to cross the watery gap. Take a close look at the water’s surface and you’ll see that the meniscus curves up to meet the rocks. That’s a clue that this image is really very small! For water on Earth, that curvature only occurs at lengths below a couple of millimeters, where surface tension has the power to overcome gravity’s efforts to flatten the surface. The ants’ bridge is only possible because the red ant is small enough and light enough for surface tension to support it. Learn more about the amazing interactions of ants and water in some of my previous posts. (Image credit: Chin Leong Teo; via Colossal)

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    “ColorLover”

    “ColorLover,” a short film by artist Rus Khasanov, is a delightful liquid rainbow. The video’s ingredients seem to be ink, paint, oil, and a bit of superhydrophobic coating primed to reveal a heart. I love that latter touch; it’s a cool way to use regular materials in a way that some might assume involved digital effects! (Video credit: R. Khasanov)

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    “Reverent”

    Today, enjoy this moody black-and-white short film of storm timelapses. Photographer Mike Olbinski is a master of this subject. I never tire of watching his towering convective supercell thunderstorms or his picturesque microbursts. The lightning-lit clouds in the latter half of the film are particularly spectacular (assuming you do not have sensitivities to flashing lights). And there are a few haboobs and a tornado in there for good measure, too. (Image and video credit: M. Olbinski)

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    “Belletrix”

    Icy crystals burst forth against a dark background in Thomas Blanchard’s short film “Belletrix.” The process is one of chemical crystallization. Blanchard supersaturates a chemical in a dish of hot water, then cools the fluid, which then spontaneously crystallizes when disturbed. Depending on the solution’s temperature, the crystals vary from feather-like to radial stars, each reflecting, expanding, and overlapping to cover the full surface. (Image and video credit: T. Blanchard)

  • Watery Salt Flats

    Watery Salt Flats

    Unusually high rainfall in Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni turned the world’s largest salt flat into a shallow salt lake. These natural-color satellite images show the area in late January 2022. If you zoom in on the full resolution image, there are incredible detailed swirls in the water. It’s like peering at an abstract or Impressionist painting. The many colors are attributable to several sources, including volcanic sediments, runoff, and a variety of microbes and algae thriving in the mineral-filled waters. (Image credit: L. Dauphin; via NASA Earth Observatory)