How Venus Is Losing Its Water

Since Venus formed at the same time as Earth and is similar in size, scientists believe it once had the same amount of water our planet does. Today, hellish Venus has hardly any water, a fact scientists have struggled to explain completely.  (Image credit: NASA; research credit: M. Chaffin et al.; via Gizmodo) Read the full article

Dispelling Ice

In winter weather, delays pile up at airports when planes need de-icing. Our current process involves spraying thousands of gallons of chemicals on planes, but these chemicals are easily removed by shear stress and dissolution, meaning that by the time a plane takes off, there is little to no de-icing agent remaining on the plane. Instead, those chemicals become run-off. (Image, video, research, and submission credit: R. Chatterjee et al.; see also) Read the full article

Mixing the Immiscible

Immiscible liquids -- like oil and water -- do not combine easily. Typically, with enough effort, you can create an emulsion -- a mixture formed from droplets of one liquid suspended in the other -- like the one above. But a team of researchers have taken mixing immiscible liquids to a new level using their Vortex Fluid Device (VFD). (Image credit: pisauikan; research credit: M. Jellicoe et al.; video credit: Flinders University; submitted by Marc A.) Read the full article

"Belletrix"

Icy crystals burst forth against a dark background in Thomas Blanchard's short film "Belletrix."  (Image and video credit: T. Blanchard) Read the full article

Liquid Bridges

In 1893, Baron Armstrong demonstrated a peculiar phenomenon -- a liquid bridge of water suspended between two beakers with a strong electric charge between them. (Image and research credit: X. Pan et al.) Read the full article

"Halo"

Fluids create mesmerizing practical effects in this new experimental film from the Julia Set Lab. I love how the visuals mess with your sense of scale.  (Video and submission credit: S. Bocci/Julia Set Lab) Read the full article

Changing with the Flow

Chemically-reacting flows are some of the toughest problems to unravel. In this new study, researchers found that the very act of flowing through narrow channels can change the speed of chemical reactions.  (Image credit: top - KazuN, visual abstract - T. Hakala et al.; research credit: T. Hakala et al.; via Science; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh) Read the full article

Tougher Hydrogels

Hydrogels are soft, stretchy solids made from polymer chains immersed in water. Engineers hope these materials will be good candidates for medical implants, but to reach that goal, hydrogels need to be durable enough to withstand repeated stretching and contortion without tearing.  (Video credit: Science; research credit: J. Kim et al.) Read the full article

Spreading By Island

How does a droplet sinking through an immiscible liquid settle onto a surface? (Image, research, and submission credit: S. Borkar and A. Ramachandran; see also Nature Behind the Paper) Read the full article

Ink-Based Propulsion

In this video, Steve Mould explores an interesting phenomenon: propulsion via ballpoint pen ink. Placing ink on one side of a leaf or piece of paper turns it into a boat with a dramatic dye-filled wake. (Video and image credit: S. Mould) Read the full article

Devising Greener Chemistry

Not all microfluidic devices use tiny channels to pump and mix fluids. Some, like the Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD), conduct their microfluidic mixing in thin films of fluid.  (Image and research credit: T. Alharbi et al.; video credit: Flinders University; via Cosmos; submitted by Marc A.) Read the full article

"Columbia" is a music video illustrated with fluid dynamics, chemistry, and biology by the Beauty of Science team. It's got everything from precipitation to crystallization, from infrared imagery of wakes to timelapses of growing molds. (Video and image credit: Beauty of Science)