2015 Virtual Pressroom
The Division exists for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the physics of fluids with special emphasis on the dynamical theories of the liquid, plastic and gaseous states of matter under all conditions of temperature and pressure.
68th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics
November 22-24, 2015
Boston, Massachusetts
Meeting Information »
The meeting brings together researchers from across the globe to address some of the most important questions in modern astronomy, engineering, alternative energy, biology, and medicine.
Press Releases
Surf's Up: How to Catch a Perfect Wave
November 24, 2015 - Along coastlines from California to Australia, you'll see surfers trying to catch that perfect wave. How they find and ride that wave relies on feel and intuition, developed through skill and experience. Now researchers from the LadHyX Hydrodynamics Laboratory of École Polytechnique in France are trying to quantify this ability, studying the conditions necessary for a surfer to catch a wave. View More »
A Flounder's Disappearing Act Explained by Physics
November 24, 2015 - Simply oscillating its fins is all a flounder, a flat fish, needs to do to resuspend sand and quickly disappear beneath it to hide. By discovering the physics at play, researchers in France are hoping to provide a new flounder-inspired solution to a common technological challenge: the resuspension of granular material within a fluid. View More »
And When the Bubbles Burst, Thunder in Neurons
November 23, 2015 - In the fleeting moments after a liquid is subjected to a sudden change in pressure, microscopic bubbles rapidly form and collapse in a process known as cavitation. In mechanical systems such as propellers, the resulting shock waves and jets can cause gradual wear, and in biological systems, they can shred and distort cells. In the human brain, this is believed to be a mechanistic cause of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, but the phenomenon has yet to be directly observed in brain tissue because the bubbles appear and disappear within microseconds. View More »
Make Mine a Double-Shot, Zero-G Espresso
November 23, 2015 - Would you rather slurp coffee from a bag or sip it from a cup? View More »
How Does Fur Keep Animals Warm in Cold Water?
November 23, 2015 - Rather than relying on a thick layer of body fat for insulation as many aquatic mammals do, some seabirds and semiaquatic mammals such as fur seals and otters trap a layer of air in their feathers and furs for thermal insulation against the ice cold drink. While scientists have extensively studied the influence of chemistry and surface roughness on water-repellency of textured surfaces such as skin, little is known about the role of larger flexible objects such as hair, a common feature of the skin of semiaquatic insects, spiders and aquatic mammals. View More »
How Do Fruit Flies Maintain Flight Stability?
November 23, 2015 - Have you ever wondered why insects move in the funky ways they do? Or how physical laws shape the design of animals' sensors and neural computation for locomotion? View More »
The Complex Sneeze, Caught on Tape
November 23, 2015 - From the daintiest sleeve-stifled 'shoo to the mightiest head-whipping howl, a sneeze is as unique to an individual as a laugh - we all do it, but everyone seems to do it differently. View More »
The Anti-Icing Tricks of Penguins
November 22, 2015 - Antarctic penguins live in a bitterly cold place, where the air temperature can drop to -40 degrees Celsius and the winds can hurtle at speeds of 40 meters per second. Although these birds routinely hop in and out of the water in sub-freezing temperatures, they manage to keep ice from coating their feathers. View More »
Wind Tunnel Reveals Mysteries of Drifting Snow
November 22, 2015 - Drifting snow is a complicated and poorly understood process that is important to fathom because it accounts for a major fraction of wind-blown snow redistribution within polar and mountainous regions of the world. View More »
Tiny Robots Inspired by Pine Cones
November 22, 2015 - Most efforts to develop bio-inspired robots center on mimicking the motions of animals: but plants move too - even if most of their motions are so slow they can't be detected by the naked eye. View More »