As sea ice disappears in the Arctic Ocean, it leaves behind higher waves on the open water. These large waves help inject sea salt and organic matter into the atmosphere, Keep reading
Tag: nucleation
Tapping a Can Won’t Save Your Beer
It happens to the best of us: sometimes our beer gets shaken up during transit. One common reaction to this is to tap the side of the can repeatedly before Keep reading
Supercooling Thermodynamics
In the latest Gastrofiscia episode, Tippe Top Physics takes on thermodynamics and the complicated truth behind certain phase changes. Although we’re accustomed to thinking of water freezing at 0 degrees Celsius and Keep reading
Exploding a Drop
Leidenfrost drops levitate over a hot substrate on a thin layer of their own vapor, constantly replenished as the drop evaporates. For the most part, previous studies have focused on Keep reading
Pyrocumulus on the Horizon
View this post on Instagram Time lapse of yesterday’s rare Pyrocumulus clouds churning high above the Idyllwild hellscape, bringing with them strong winds, the threat of lightning and turbulence that Keep reading
Creating Clouds
Despite their ubiquity and importance, we know surprisingly little about how clouds form. The broad strokes of the process are known, but the details remain somewhat fuzzy. One challenge is Keep reading
Drawing Up Dew
Desert plants have evolved to efficiently collect and capture whatever water they can. Each leaf of the moss Syntrichia caninervis ends in a hairlike fiber called an awn (seen in 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
Pyrocumulus Clouds
Pyrocumulus clouds tower tall above a wildfire in these photos taken last week from an Oregon National Guard F-15C. Most cumulus clouds form when the sun-warmed surface heats air, causing Keep reading
Overflowing Foam
Hitting a glass bottle full of a non-carbonated drink can shatter the bottle due to cavitation, but doing the same with a carbonated beverage can make the bottle overflow with Keep reading