#electrohydrodynamics

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When a droplet falls on a surface, it spreads itself horizontally into a thin lamella. Sometimes -- depending on factors like viscosity, impact speed, and air pressure -- that drop splashes, breaking up along its edge into myriad smaller droplets. But a new study finds that a small electrical charge is enough to suppress a drop's splash. (Image and research credit: F. Yu et al.; via APS News) Read the full article

A ring of hydrogen bubbles rises, rotating clockwise, in this video of electrolysis. But there are no fan blades to cause this swirl, so why do the bubbles rotate?  (Video and image credit: Y. Cho et al.)

Microplastics are proliferating in our oceans (and everywhere else). This video takes a look at how salt and salinity gradients could affect the way plastics move.  (Video and image credit: M. Alipour et al.) Read the full article

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

With the right application of force, liquids can take on shapes that defy our intuition. Here researchers sandwiched two immiscible oils between glass slides and applied an electric field. (Image, video, and research credit: G. Raju et al.; via Physics World) Read the full article

A layer of tiny glass beads sitting atop a pool of castor oil becomes a morphing surface in this video. Applying an electric field creates enough electrostatic force to draw the interface upward against the power of both gravity and surface tension.  (Image and video credit: K. Sun et al.) Read the full article