In this latest project, the Beauty of Science team explores colorful crystallization as chemicals precipitate out of evaporating solutions. The variety of shapes and colors is incredible.
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Over the last 15 years or so, researchers have been exploring pilot-wave theory--originally proposed by De Broglie in the 1920s as a way to understand quantum mechanics--using hydrodynamic quantum analogs.
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When we first learn about states of matter, we're taught about three: solid, liquid, and gas. But reality is even weirder.
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On the outskirts of our solar system, two enigmatic giants loom: Uranus and Neptune. In terms of mass and size, both resemble many of the exoplanets discovered in recent years.
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A ring of hydrogen bubbles rises, rotating clockwise, in this video of electrolysis. But there are no fan blades to cause this swirl, so why do the bubbles rotate?
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For tiny invertebrates like this one, water is a very different substance than we're used to. At this scale, surface tension is a force as powerful--or more so--than gravity. Droplets remain spherical, caught on long, spike-like hairs.
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Schlieren techniques are one of my favorite forms of flow visualization. They cleverly make the invisible visible through an optical set-up that's sensitive to changes in density.
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Cepheid variable stars pulsate in brightness over regular periods. That's one reason astronomers use them as a standard candle to judge distances--even for stars well outside our galaxy.
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Before the rise of railroads, canals provided critical commercial shipping infrastructure for many locations worldwide.
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During the winter months, those of us living in the mid-latitudes sometimes experience atmospheric rivers. Formed from the interaction of cold winter storms with warm, moist tropical air, atmospheric rivers can deliver intense rainfall across long distances.
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I'll stick with my "neoliberal purity" then, thanks. I don't need to waste resources on a worse spellchecker.
Light shining through misty spray creates a liquid rainbow in this photo by Ronja Linssen. Although mists and sprays--from waterfalls, waves, and more--seem insubstantial, they can be a major source of material transfer between the water and atmosphere.
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Although we are most familiar with the white, branching lightning caused by electrical discharge between clouds and the ground, there are many types of lightning. This fortuitous image captures two: tentacled red sprites and ring-like ELVES.
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How can you break water? By accelerating it so quickly that the pressure drop forms cavitation bubbles. #cavitation #flowvisualization #fluiddynamics #physics #science
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In the team pursuit, a new drafting technique is helping U.S. speedskaters win.
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Ski jumping is in the news this Olympic cycle after rumors that male competitors may be cheating in order to wear larger suits. #aerodynamics #Olymipcs #physics #science #skijumping
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Next time you fill your water bottle, watch closely and see if you can spot a bubble heart like these. When a jet falls into a pool, it pulls air in with it.
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The 2026 Olympics include the debut of ski mountaineering (a.k.a. skimo), a sprint race heading both up and down the mountain on skis.
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This year's sliding events--bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton--will take place at the brand-new Cortina Sliding Center. Built on the site of a historic sliding track, this new venue came together in only the last couple of years.
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Ailsa Craig sits about 10 miles off the Scottish coast, a granite dome left behind by a volcanic event millions of years ago. This small, now-uninhabited crag is the birthplace for every Olympic curling stone.
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Welcome to another Olympic year and another FYFD celebration of the fluid physics that enable these sports! All Winter Olympic sports are required, per the IOC, to take place on snow or ice--one of the strangest substances we know of.
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Branching cracks wend through the slopes of Utah in this photograph by Matt Payne. It may seem strange to feature something so dry on a blog about fluid dynamics, but everything seen here depends as much on air and water as on soil, rock, and sand.
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Many biorobots are built after flies and bees--insects that rely heavily on flapping flight. To glide, researchers are turning instead to grasshoppers.
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Even though particles are not (strictly speaking) a fluid, they often behave like one. Here, researchers investigate what happens when two layers of particles--with different size and density--slide down an incline together.
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It's tough to simulate nonlinear wave dynamics, so scientists often test theories in wave flumes, where they can create more controlled waves than what we see in the wild. And now they're doing it in micron-sized wave flumes!
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In 1604, astronomers first caught sight of Kepler's Supernova Remnant, a massive explosion some 17,000 light-years away.
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Grains of pollen are caught amid droplets on a spider's web in this award-winning image by John-Oliver Dum.
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If I could emulate the original Luddites, I'd go into the factory and destroy the LLMs while leaving general machine learning untouched.
On the surface of a gently vibrating liquid, a droplet can bounce indefinitely without coalescing, kept aloft by an air film too small to see. Now scientists have shown this is possible with a solid surface, too.
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The vivid bands of a gas giant like Jupiter come from the planet's combination of rotation and convection. It's possible to create the same effect in a lab by rapidly spinning a tank of water around a central ice core.
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