Browse Physics

Simulations provide insight into how viscous flow transforms the shapes of red blood cells, which may influence their physiological properties.

Is there a fundamental lower bound on viscosity? To answer this question, we can look at the coldest and hottest fluids that laboratories are able to produce.

How freak or rogue waves form in the ocean is not well understood, but new investigations suggest a mechanism for these waves that may also allow formation of high-intensity pulses in optical fibers.

Rotating electric fields can power the flow of water along a nanochannel.

Convection in a fluid heated from below, known as Rayleigh-Bénard convection, is an important turbulent process that occurs in the sun, planetary atmospheres, industrial manufacturing, and many other places. Physicists and engineers have made much progress in understanding this phenomenon in simple laboratory geometries, but still have a way to go before they are able to extrapolate to the extreme conditions often encountered in nature.

A new technique provides a 3-D view of the organized motion of swimming bacteria.

Chaotic matter waves formed by perturbing a Bose-Einstein condensate may provide a valuable laboratory setting for understanding many different kinds of quantum-fluid turbulence.

Focused vibrations can cause a liquid drop on a surface to erupt into a vertical jet, a phenomenon that may lead to improved biomedical devices and inkjet printers.

A tilted, rotating magnetic field causes magnetizable beads in a fluid to assemble into chains that efficiently stir the mixture–a scheme that might be used in chemical processing of tiny volumes.

Scaling laws are a useful way to characterize fluid flow over a wide range of flow rates and experimental conditions. Theorists now explain several earlier experiments by finding a scaling law that describes how a liquid-liquid interface changes shape when driven by viscous forces.

Water containing specialized nanoparticles can transport heat at two different rates, depending on the initial configuration of the particles. An improved version of this system could help regulate heat flow in devices.

The thin stream kicked up by dropping an object in water results from a kind of squirting action by the fluid, according to experiments and simulations.

A magnetic field can control the speed with which waves move on the surface of a ferrofluid. Scientists take advantage of this capability to explore new regimes of wave turbulence.

From the nucleus to black holes, the model of a spinning liquid drop can describe the physics of a large number of systems. With diamagnetic levitation, it is possible to accurately study the many shapes a rapidly rotating liquid drop can take and compare the results against theoretical predictions.

Turbulent states in a pipe do eventually decay, but you may have to wait for an extremely long time to prove it.

Computer simulations reveal a new type of wave structure that may appear in the banded flows of giant planets, or even Earth’s oceans.

Some of the most ingenious ideas for designing microfluidic systems come from observing plants and animals. A study that quantifies the protein-driven helical flow of liquid in large plant cells, for instance, may well inspire micron-scale liquid mixers and sensors.

Images of vortex motion in superfluid helium reveal connections between quantum and classical turbulence and may lead to an understanding of complex flows in both superfluids and ordinary fluids.

A novel dimensionless parameter allows prediction of whether dispersed particles in a turbulent flow enhance or attenuate the turbulence.

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.