When an object like a sphere enters the water, it drags air into the water behind it, creating a cavity. Depending on the sphere's impact speed, the cavity might close first under the water, forming a deep seal, or at the surface with a surface seal. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26608

Spheres of a Volvox colonial algae glow green inside a droplet in this award-winning microphotograph by Jan Rosenboom. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25371

Venus is a world of extremes. A full rotation of the world takes 243 Earth days, but winds race around the planet at a speed that makes a Category 5 hurricane look sedate. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26135

Large-scale computational fluid dynamics simulations face many challenges. Among them is the need to capture both large physical scales--like those of Earth's atmospheric boundary layer--and small scales--like those of tiny eddies moving around a wind-turbine blade. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26896

Inside a fusion reactor, magnetically-contained plasma gets heated to more than one hundred million degrees. That heat, researchers observed, spreads much faster than originally predicted. Now a team from Japan has measurements showing how turbulence manages this feat. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27061

When placed on a vibrating oil bath, droplets have many wild behaviors, some of which mirror quantum mechanics. Even big droplets -- bigger than 2 millimeters in diameter -- can get in on the fun. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26495

Glacier-fed rivers are often rich in colorful sediments. Here, photographer Jan Erik Waider shows us Iceland's glacial rivers flowing primarily in shades of blue. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27047

For decades, biologists have focused on genetics as the key determiner for biological processes, but genetic signals alone do not explain every process. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26142

Back in May 2020, the Edenville Dam in Michigan failed dramatically, releasing flood waters that destroyed a downstream dam and caused millions of dollars of damage. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=17327

As children, we're taught that there are three distinct phases of matter--solid, liquid, and gas--but the reality is somewhat more complicated. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26887

High-speed cameras are an amazing tool in fluid dynamics, but they come with a whole host of challenges. Here, researchers explore event-based cameras instead. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26711

Taken from a Cessna aircraft, photographer J. Fritz Rumpf's image of a Brazilian landscape appears abstract. But it captures a serpentine river and surrounding dunes, dyed brown by decaying plant matter and sculpted by the forces of wind and current. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26676

Happy 2026! It's time for a look back at the Best of FYFD 2025. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=27026

Engineering classes often discuss hydrostatics--the physics of non-moving water--before they cover fluid dynamics and its flows. But hydrostatics is plenty challenging on its own. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25985

When a fluid coats the inner walls of a cylinder, it can move downward in what's called a collar flow. In our airways, a sinking collar flow can thicken as it falls, eventually blocking the airway completely. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25585

When droplets flow through a forest of microfluidic posts, they can deform around the obstacle or break up into smaller droplets. Here, researchers explore the factors that control the outcome, as well as when droplets collide, coalesce, and mix. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26731

In case anyone has any doubts, yes, I am an AI hater. Period. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

Bubbles caught in ice resemble the growth of a cellular organism in this photograph of Tatiewa Lake in Japan, taken by Soichiro Moriyama. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26693

Ripple bugs are a type of water strider capable of moving at a blazing fast 120 body lengths per second across the water surface. In addition to their speed, ripple bugs are incredibly agile and are active almost constantly. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25603

Once a breeze kicks up, leaves on a tree start dancing. Every tree's leaves have their own shapes, some of which appear very different from other trees. But their dances have patterns, as today's video shows. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26596

Strong seasonal winds blowing from the Atlantic typically push water away from Panama's Pacific coast, allowing deeper, colder waters to rise up. This upwelling cools reefs and feeds phytoplankton blooms, both of which support the rich marine life found there. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26158

There are many shapes that can be tiled to fill space, but nearly all of them have sharp corners. Last year, mathematicians identified a new class of shapes, known as "soft cells," that feature curved edges and faces but very few sharp corners. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26204

Strong winds blew curtains of mist across Skógafoss in this image of nesting northern fulmars by photographer Stefan Gerrits. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25426

Hummingbirds and many insects hover when feeding, escaping predators, and mating. While scientists have decoded the mechanics of a hummingbird's figure-8-like hovering wingstroke, it's been harder to understand how the creatures control their hovering. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25998

A few years ago, researchers described how an alcohol-water droplet atop an oil bath could pull itself apart through surface tension forces. Now, researchers look what happens with a little added surfactant. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26516

Micrometer-sized particles can be trapped in place against a flow using acoustic waves. But smaller nano-sized particles feel less radiation pressure from acoustic waves, and so keep moving in the flow. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25574

With a depth of nearly 600 meters, Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest lake in the United States. It's known for its brilliant blue hue and startling clarity. But, like other deep lakes, Crater Lake is changing as temperatures warm. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26475

It's hard to preserve something as ephemeral as a snowflake, as seen in this microphotograph by Michael Robert Peres. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25390

Adding just a little polymer to a pipe flow speeds it up by reducing drag near the wall. But the effects on turbulence away from the wall have been harder to suss out. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25449

Instruments aboard NASA's PACE mission are able to distinguish far more about phytoplankton blooms than previous satellites. This image shows chlorophyll concentrations in the Norwegian Sea in July 2025. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25031

As humanity pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs about a quarter of it. This exchange happens largely through bubbles created by breaking waves. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=26003

Shades of blue, green, and purple light the Icelandic sky in this image from December 2023. Incoming solar wind particles hit oxygen and nitrogen atoms high in the atmosphere, exciting their electrons and creating this distinctive glow. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=22632

The Macro room team is back with a video featuring their signature colorful cleverness. This time they're using a magnetic stirrer to swirl up some mesmerizing flows. It's well worth a watch. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25596

Stars about eight times more massive than our sun end their lives in supernovas, incredible explosions that rip the star apart. The earliest stages of this explosion are something we've never observed firsthand, until now. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25988

Every time I fill a glass at my refrigerator, I watch how the falling jet creates a cloud of bubbles. The bubbles form when the impacting water jet pulls air in with it, though, as this video shows, the exact origins can vary. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=23511

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability--typically marked by mushroom-shaped plumes--occurs when a dense fluid accelerates into a less dense one. But researchers have now demonstrated the effect at quantum scales, too. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25579

Fresh snow shines white on the southern end of Greenland in this satellite image, taken in late February 2025. Whorls of sea ice sit off the coast, where they trace out patterns that reflect the winds and ocean currents of the region. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=23624

It's difficult at times to fathom the scale and power of fluid dynamics beyond our day-to-day lives. Here, twists of the Sun's magnetic field propel a jet of plasma more than 500,000 kilometers out from its surface in an enormous solar prominence eruption. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25248

Photographer Ernie Button explores the stains left behind when various liquors evaporate. This one comes from a single malt scotch whisky by The Balvenie. The stain itself is made up of particles left behind when the alcohol and water in the whisky evaporate. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25500

When supercooled, water can remain a liquid even below its freezing point. As explained in this Minute Physics video, this happens because of a tug-of-war between effects in the water. #physics #science #supercooling fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=24970

Taking a deep breath may actually help you breathe easier, according to a new study. When we inhale, air fills our alveoli--tiny balloon-like compartments within our lungs. To make alveoli easier to open, they're coated in a surfactant chemical produced by our lungs. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25444

Mushrooms have the challenging task of dispersing spores, typically from heights no more than a few centimeters above the ground. At that altitude, viscosity and friction with the ground mean that air barely moves, if it does at all. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25515

Winds from the north made for wild conditions at Nazaré in Portugal. Photographer Ben Thouard caught these crashing waves in the late afternoon, when the low sun angle illuminated the spray of the surf. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=24942

To form planets, the dust and gas around a star has to start clumping up. While there are many theories as to how this could happen, it's a difficult process to observe. A recent study shows that a magnetorotational (MR) instability could do the job. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25337

A craftsperson loves craft. Writing is craft. The people who practice it are into the process. People using AI don't have the SOUL of a craftsperson. They want an end result to stick their name on, that's it.

At first glance, draining an ocean seems simple like a simple problem: just put a drain at the lowest point. But it's not quite that easy. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25151

Even small changes to a meniscus can change how much wave energy passes through it. A new study systemically tests how meniscus size and shape affects the transmission of incoming waves. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25331

We spend our lives dealing with fluids at a scale where the motion of individual molecules is beneath our notice. But once you are dealing with pipes that are small enough--below about 1 nanometer in diameter--fluids have to be considered molecule-by-molecule. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=25349

If you're used to seeing penguins on land, their speed and grace in the water can surprise. Penguins are even capable of extra bursts of speed through supercavitation. fyfluiddynamics.com/?p=24924