Being hot isn’t always enough to make water boil. To form vapor bubbles, water and other liquids need imperfections that serve as seeds. In the absence of these, the liquid Keep reading
Tag: vaporization
The Leidenfrost Crack
In 1756, Leidenfrost reported on the peculiar behaviors of droplets on surface much hotter than the liquid’s boiling point. Such droplets were highly mobile, surfing on a thin layer of Keep reading
Fizzy Droplets
Leidenfrost drops surf on a layer of their own vapor, created by the high temperature of a nearby surface relative to their boiling point. These Leidenfrost drops can self-propel and Keep reading
Landslide Lubrication
In 2008, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake in China caused the enormous Daguangbao landslide, which loosed over one cubic kilometer of rocks and debris. That material rushed down the mountainside, running more Keep reading
Lava Bomb
What you see above is a homemade lava bomb. To systematically study what happens when groundwater meets lava, scientists melted basalt and created their own meter-scale explosion-on-demand. Inside the container, Keep reading
Different Kinds of Boiling
When you put a pot of water on to boil, you probably don’t give much thought to the process. In our daily lives, we pretty much only see one kind Keep reading
A Star Drop
There are many ways to make a droplet oscillate in a star-shape – like vibrating its surface or using acoustic waves to excite it – but these methods involve externally Keep reading
Using Embolisms to Fight Cancer
Blocking blood vessels by creating embolisms is, under most circumstances, very bad. But researchers are exploring ways to fight cancer by intentionally and strategically creating these blockages. In gas embolotherapy, Keep reading
Water Walking, Exploding Droplets, and Colliding Vortices
Every year I look forward to the APS DFD conference in November. It brings thousands of researchers together to share the latest in fluid dynamics. So much goes on in Keep reading
Rolling Along
Leidenfrost drops – droplets deposited onto a surface much hotter than their boiling point – are known for their mobility. With the right surface, they can be propelled, trapped, and Keep reading