When a drop settles gently against a pool of the same liquid, it will coalesce. The process is not always a complete one, though; sometimes a smaller droplet breaks away Keep reading
Tag: instability
Underground Convection Thaws Permafrost Faster
In recent years, Arctic permafrost has thawed at a surprisingly fast pace. Much of that is, of course, due to the rapid warming caused by climate change. But some of Keep reading
The Shape of Rain
In our collective imagination, a raindrop is pendant shaped, wide at the bottom and pointed at the top. But, in fact, a falling raindrop experiences much more complicated shapes. Here, Keep reading
“Aquakosmos – Ch. 2”
Colored inks bulge and billow around flowers in filmmaker Christopher Dormoy’s “Aquakosmos – Ch. 2”. Because ink is denser than the surrounding water, it sinks, forming mushroom-like shapes as the Keep reading
Making a Splash
Since Harold Edgerton’s experiments with stroboscopic photographs in the 1930s, we’ve been fascinated by the shape of splashes. These days students and artists can take advantage of programmable external flashes Keep reading
A Shallow Origin for the Sun’s Magnetic Field
The Sun‘s complex magnetic field drives its 11-year solar activity cycle in ways we have yet to understand. During active periods, more sunspots appear, along with roiling flows within the Keep reading
Viscous Fireworks
Inject a less viscous fluid into a gap filled with a more viscous fluid, and you’ll get finger-like patterns spreading radially. Here, researchers put a twist on this viscous fingering Keep reading
Dripping Viscoelastics
An ultrasoft viscoelastic fluid drips in this research poster from the Gallery of Soft Matter. Complex materials like this one have stretchy, elastic behaviors typical of a solid along with Keep reading
Searching for Stability in Cleaner Flames
Spiking natural gas power plants with hydrogen could help them burn cleaner as we transition away from carbon power. But burners in power plants and jet engines can be extremely Keep reading
Exciting a Flame in a Trough
A viewer sent Steve Mould his accidental discovery of this odd flame behavior. In these 3D-printed troughs, a flame lit in lighter fluid will rocket around the track repeatedly as Keep reading