Browse Physics

The circular swimming motion of self-propelled, L-shaped microparticles may provide insight into microorganisms that are similarly lacking in symmetry.

Simulations show that breaking ocean waves contribute most of their energy to the air, rather than the water, which could affect cloud formation and climate evolution.

Shaken or stirred? Suspended beads stir themselves when shaken in a new experiment using magnetic levitation.

Removing the charged layer around a particle allows detailed measurements of its motion in an electric field.

New theory and experiments explain why the lengthy strands that dangle from a spoon of honey can get so long without breaking up.

Shape-preserving waves that create a depression in the surrounding medium are observed in water for the first time.

Tiny “ball bearings” could drastically reduce the friction between two liquids sliding past one another.

The use of optical tweezers in a high-pressure experiment allows a more direct measurement of water viscosity in extreme conditions.

Experiments show that blood plasma has elastic properties that could influence the way blood flows through small vessels.

An electric field applied to a soap film induces fluid flow through the film and causes its thickness to increase—a phenomenon that could be useful in microfluidic systems.

Convective mixing of fluids goes faster when the container is tilted—a finding that may impact the choosing of geological sites for carbon dioxide storage.

A new theory attempts to explain the exceptionally long life of air nanobubbles on wet surfaces.

An equation that describes a wide array of phenomena can be directly tested by watching the equivalent of a drying coffee drip.

Confirmation that interacting magnetic plasma waves can generate “daughter” waves of a higher frequency supports the current picture of how turbulence leads to heat in astrophysical plasma.

Two-dimensional simulations provide the first element-by-element accounting of the fluid and grain flow in an underwater avalanche.

Orderly flow in fluid extracted from a living cell results from the spontaneous organization of randomly-oriented, microscopic forces.

With a simple ball and stick model, theorists explain how the two flagella on a swimming alga become synchronized.

Researchers used a nanoscale tunnel in a silicon chip to measure a flow rate of a few picoliters per minute, which is smaller than any previous observation.

Researchers explain where those X- and Y-shaped waves at the shore come from.

Fluidlike folding instabilities of solid surfaces complicate the machining of metals to perfection