Hand-Making Artist-Grade Pastels

I'm constantly fascinated by the intersections of art and fluid mechanics. In this video, we get an inside look at a French atelier making artist-grade pastels using centuries-old methods. (Video and image credit: Business Insider)P.S. - Next week we'll kick off our Paris Olympics coverage, but if you'd like a head start on the celebration, you can find our coverage of previous Olympics here. - Nicole Read the full article

Hole Punch Clouds

At times altocumulus cloud cover is pierced by circular or elongated holes, filled only with the wispiest of virga. These odd holes are known by many names: cavum, fallstreak holes, and hole punch clouds.  (Image credit: M. Garrison; research credit: A. Heymsfield et al. 2010 and A. Heymsfield et al. 2011; via NASA Earth Observatory) Read the full article

Junggar Basin Aglow

The low sun angle in this astronaut photo of Junggar Basin shows off the wind- and water-carved landscape. Located in northwestern China, this region is covered in dune fields, appearing along the top and bottom of the image.  (Image credit: NASA; via NASA Earth Observatory) Read the full article

"Stomp-Rocket": A New Type of Eruption

When Kilauea's caldera collapsed in 2018, it came with a sequence of 12 closely-timed eruptions that did not match either of the typical volcanic eruption types. Usually, eruptions are either magmatic -- caused by rising magma -- or phreatic -- caused by groundwater flash-boiling into steam. The data from Kilauea matched neither type. (Image credit: O. Holm; research credit: J. Crozier et al.; via Physics World) Read the full article

Solar Filament Eruption

From Earth, we rarely glimpse the violent flows of our home star. Here, a filament erupts from the photosphere creating a coronal mass ejection, captured in ultraviolet wavelengths by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.  (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO; via APOD) Read the full article

The Real Butterfly Effect

The butterfly effect -- that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas -- expresses the sensitivity of a chaotic system to initial conditions. In essence, because we can't possibly track every butterfly in Brazil, we'll never perfectly predict tornadoes in Texas, even if the equations behind our weather forecast are deterministic. (Image credit: NASA; see also T. Palmer at Physics Today) Read the full article

"Ferro Field"

Ferrofluid forms a labyrinth of blobs and lines against a white background in this award-winning photo by Jack Margerison. Ferrofluids are a magnetically-sensitive fluid, typically created by suspending magnetic nanoparticles in oil. (Image credit: J. Margerison from CUPOTY; via Colossal) Read the full article

Can Explosions Deflect Bullets?

In one of their most Mythbusters-like videos ever, the Slow Mo Guys ask: can an explosion deflect a bullet?  (Video and image credit: The Slow Mo Guys) Read the full article

Droplet Medusa

Vibration is one method for breaking a drop into smaller droplets, a process known as atomization. Here, researchers simulate this break-up process for a drop in microgravity. (Image and research credit: D. Panda et al.) Read the full article

Inside a Zebrafish Heart

This glimpse inside a 5-day-old zebrafish's heart shows why they're often used as a model organism in cardiac studies. The fish's heart rate is similar to humans and its two-chamber heart -- one atrium and one ventricle, both seen here -- serves as a simplified version of ours. (Video credit: M. Weber/2023 Nikon Small World in Motion Competition) Read the full article

"Emerald Roots"

As charged particles from the solar wind bombard the upper atmosphere, a glowing plasma forms and dances in the sky. The green light of the plasma reflects off moistened sand, rippled by the passage of wind and tide.  (Image credit: L. Tenti; via 2023 Astronomy POTY) Read the full article

"A Sun Question"

The sun's surface and atmosphere are endlessly dynamic, with magnetic lines, plasma, and convection creating a constant churn. In this photo by astrophotographer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, a curving question-mark-like filament appears above the sun's surface. (Image credit: E. Poupeau; via 2023 Astronomy POTY) Read the full article

Swirling Sea Ice

The Sea of Okhotsk is the northern hemisphere's southernmost sea that seasonally freezes. Caught between the Siberian coast and the Kamchatka Peninsula, cold air from Siberia helps freeze water kept at lower salinity due to freshwater run-off.  (Image credit: W. Liang; via NASA Earth Observatory) Read the full article

Do Droughts Worsen Floods?

In recent years many areas have seen record droughts followed by sudden, massive rainfalls. Such wild swings raise the question: does drought-parched soil make flooding worse? That's the question Grady tackles in this Practical Engineering video, and, as is often the cause in real-world engineering, the answer is complicated. (Video and image credit: Practical Engineering) Read the full article

Swimming Through Mud

At the bottom of ponds, nematodes and other creatures swim in a world of mud. They squirm their way through a sediment of dirt particles suspended in water. (Image credit: nematode - P. Garcelon, experiment - A. Biswas et al.; research credit: A. Biswas et al.) Read the full article

Imitating a Cough

Coughing and sneezing create violent air flows in and around our bodies. As that fast air rushes over mucus layers in our lungs, throat, and sinuses, the resulting flow breaks up the mucus into droplets. (Image credit: top - A. Piacquadio, experiment - P. Kant et al.; research credit: P. Kant et al.) Read the full article

Lagoon Nebula

Some 4,100 light years away in the Sagittarius constellation, a stellar nursery births new stars. Known as Messier 8, or the Lagoon Nebula, this region is one of the most visible nebulas from Earth. It is filled with turbulent gases and dark strands of dust.  (Image credit: J. Drudis and C. Sasse; via APOD) Read the full article