When watching Roman De Giuli’s “Satellike,” you may think you’re looking at satellite imagery of Earth. In reality, each sequence is a combination of watery ink and dried paint on paper. You can see some behind-the-scenes glimpses of the process and the artworks that inspired the work here. (Image and video credit: R. De Giuli; submitted by Mark S.)
In this music video for the song “Chocolate Lullaby,” the Macro Room team feature all kinds of fluid dynamical phenomena. It begins with pouring viscous fluids, which, like honey or cake batter, fold and stack before they spread. From there things get significantly less viscous and more turbulent. There’s some neat coalescence, billowing streams colliding, and some gorgeous turbulence. Enjoy! (Image and video credit: Macro Room)
Catalysts speed up chemical reactions without being consumed themselves. In “Catalysis” the Beauty of Science team shows 5 different examples of catalytic reactions, from acetone oxidation to yeast fermentation. The film is full of bubbles, sparks, and wave-like pulses of chemical reaction. As always, it’s a lovely glimpse of processes we’re not used to watching so closely. (Image and video credit: Beauty of Science)
Surface tension tries to minimize a bubble‘s surface area, which is why bubbles assume a spherical shape. But when many bubbles clump together, a curved interface is not always the most energy efficient one. In this case, bubbles can take on many shapes and sizes while still minimizing the overall surface energy. Take a close look at this image and see what shapes you discover! (Image credit: M. Adil)
Broad Sound, in eastern Australia, is home to some of the most extreme tidal swings in the world, with more than ten meters difference between high and low tides. The bay’s peculiar geography, along with the topography of nearby reefs, combine to cause the large tides. This color-enhanced satellite image shows the bay at high tide, as phytoplankton and suspended sediments are swept into the bay and around its many islands. The level of detail is just stunning. I particularly love all the von Karman vortex streets visible in the wakes of islands. I count more than a dozen of them! (Image credit: N. Kuring/NASA/USGS; via NASA Earth Observatory)
Years ago, I drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a wet and misty New Year’s Day. The fog that clung to the dark trees made the whole world quiet and surreal. And although Mike Olbinski’s “Mist and Water” takes place on the opposite side of the country in Oregon, that’s what the video reminds me of. So take a few minutes to enjoy the calm of mist and water flowing in this beautiful short film. (Image and video credit: M. Olbinski)
The necessary ingredients for scotch whisky’s evaporation patterns are alcohol, surfactants, and polymers; some of those components are absorbed during the spirit’s aging in oak casks. Photographer Ernie Button explored how long it takes for whisky to absorb enough of these chemicals by photographing the stains left by samples aged between 1 and 5 weeks in an oak cask. He found that it takes about 5 weeks for the scotch patterns to begin emerging.
The aging process for scotch and other cask-aged spirits depends on the fluid’s flow through the porous grain of the oak. Evaporation plays a significant role in the process, so the aging process differs based on environmental conditions. For example, distillers in the dry, high-altitude climate of Colorado must use climate-controlled storage, whereas Scottish distillers use a more humid natural climate to their advantage.
Another major factor in the aging process is the charred oak cask itself. Some whiskys, like American bourbon, always use a brand new barrel, whereas scotch is often aged in a previously-used cask. With older casks, absorption of molecules from the wood takes longer, which is why scotch is typically aged for much longer than some other types of whisky. (Image, research, and submission credit: E. Button; see also)
In yesterday’s post, photographer Ernie Button showed us that barrel-aged gin can leave behind an evaporation pattern remarkably similar to scotch whisky. But even among whiskys not every spirit uses the same grains.
Here we see patterns left behind by a 10-year-aged, rice-based whisky. The stains are entirely different than those of (barley-based) scotch. The rice leaves behind stains with distinct regions, including a radially uniform rim and an interior reminiscent of satellite photos. Presumably the interaction of rice and the cask leaves the whisky with surfactants and polymers that behave rather differently than those of scotch.
It takes time for spirits to take on character from the casks they’re aged in. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at just how much aging is necessary for scotch’s patterns to emerge. (Image, research, and submission credit: E. Button; see also)
Photographer Ernie Button has spent years exploring the patterns left by evaporating scotch. A team of researchers found that the uniformity of scotch whisky’s stain requires three ingredients: alcohol to drive concentration gradients, surfactants to pull particulates away from the drop’s edge, and polymers to help stick particles to the glass.
Button wondered whether other spirits might produce similar patterns, and, indeed, some do. The photos above are stains left behind by evaporated gin that’s been aged for a year in oak casks. The patterns are extremely similar in appearance to those from aged scotch whiskies, suggesting that the same fluid dynamical effects are at play here, despite the difference in liquor. But do all grain spirits make these patterns? Check back tomorrow to find out. (Image, research, and submission credit: E. Button; see also)
Musical duo Dengue Dengue Dengue create live audio/visual performances with fluid dynamics. Their visuals are created by adding various liquids and dyes atop an illuminated background. To add extra dynamism, they sometimes use a sheet of plastic to cover and pump the liquids, creating a pseudo-Hele-Shaw cell where they can trigger fluid instabilities in time to the music. The full performance in this video is nearly an hour long, but at least take some time to scrub through and see a few different sections. (Video credit: Dengue Dengue Dengue/Espacio Fundación Telefónica Lima; submitted by Tania S.)