Some single-celled organisms, like dinoflagellates, light up when disturbed. This bioluminescence is considered a defense mechanism, triggered by threats to the organism. Now researchers are quantifying just what it takes Keep reading
Tag: shear stress
Using Bubbles to Keep Clean
Keeping produce clean of foodborne pathogens is a serious issue, and delicate fruits and vegetables like tomatoes cannot withstand intense procedures like cavitation-based cleaning. But a new study suggests that Keep reading
Amber Waves
When I was a teenager, I liked riding my bike along the river boardwalk near my house. There were fields there, like those in the image above and video below, Keep reading
Bioluminescent Plankton
In nutrient-rich marine waters, dinoflagellates, a type of plankton, can flourish. At night, these tiny organisms are responsible for incredible blue light displays in the water. The dinoflagellates produce two Keep reading
Unboiling an Egg
Cooking is something we think of as a one-way process. You add heat to food, it changes forms, and there’s undoing that. But that process is less one-directional than we Keep reading
Bioluminescent Plankton
The blue-outlined dolphins you see above get their glow from microorganisms called dinoflagellates. They are a type of bioluminescent plankton, shown in the lower image, that can be found in Keep reading
How Erosion Shapes a Flow
Erosion creates all manner of strange shapes as wind and water cut away at solids. But why does the interaction of the fluid and solid result in the geometries we observe? Keep reading
Mixing While Laminar
Although turbulent flows are known for their mixing efficiency, in manufacturing there can often be a need to mix laminar fluid streams without the increased shear stress of a turbulent Keep reading
Inside a Blender
The fluid dynamics of a commercial-quality blender amount to a lot more than just stirring. Here high-speed video shows how the blender’s moving blades create a suction effect that pulls Keep reading
When Fluids Behave Like Solids
Many common fluids–like air and water–are Newtonian fluids, meaning that stress in the fluid is linearly proportional to the rate at which the fluid is deformed. Viscosity is the constant Keep reading