Browse Physics

The rotational flow of fluid in a heated tank containing some heavy beads periodically reverses direction, mimicking some aspects of the motion of Earth’s continents over geologic time.

A tank of stirred liquid sodium generates a magnetic field even though it’s highly turbulent–a condition closer to real dynamos in planets, stars, and galaxies, but harder to simulate in the lab.

The radiation emitted at the edge of a black hole might exist even if the hole doesn’t possess an “event horizon” from which nothing can escape.

Computer simulations show a new way to rapidly generate large, lone ocean waves that have occasionally sunk ships.

Researchers measured how heat flows within a fluid undergoing rapid convection, a process that occurs in the atmosphere and in stars.

In a wind tunnel, a plate’s surface irregularities can suppress air turbulence, suggesting possible improvements for airplane wings.

A simple nanomachine propels itself through liquid simply by changing its length.

Researchers have created a laser-light-powered microjet smaller than the width of a human hair.

Quasiperiodic waves in a liquid may help researchers understand how electrons move through quasicrystals.

Raindrops may form in clouds through a nucleation process like the one that makes bubbles in soda and sugar crystals in honey.

Researchers have used liquid mercury to create the first of a new class of solitary surface waves.

A regularly spaced array of laser beams deflects particles from their usual course.

The secret to probing clouds from afar may be igniting tiny fires in their water droplets.

A new scheme suggests a way of reducing the deadly wake turbulence of aircraft.

A new way to create a stream of equally sized microscopic bubbles might be used in foam science, drugs, or food.

Swirling winds inside clouds may be one of the keys to quick formation of raindrops.

A surprising effect traps dye particles within narrow bands in a tank of whirling fluid. Such focusing may influence chemical reactions and the motions of water vapor in the atmosphere.

Scientists have for the first time created a magnetic field in the lab by stirring up molten metal–the same way the Earth does.

An experiment on board the MIR spacecraft showed that a bubble of gas surrounded by liquid can rise to a temperature higher than that of the surrounding walls.

Physicists have taken their highest resolution look at the supersonic shock wave that emerges from gas bubbles so hot that they might create nuclear fusion.