How insects track odors by navigating microscale winds

How do flying insects like important pollinators locate odor sources in the great outdoors, despite encountering highly variable wind conditions? They use odor plumes—which travel like smoke and form when the wind blows ...

Exploring the physics of gummy candy

For gummy candies, texture might be even more important than taste. Biting into a hard, stale treat is disappointing, even if it still carries a burst of sweetness. Keeping gummies in good condition depends on their formulation ...

Extracting the best flavor from coffee

Espresso coffee is brewed by first grinding roasted coffee beans into grains. Hot water then forces its way through a bed of coffee grains at high pressure, and the soluble content of the coffee grains dissolves into the ...

Preserving pine forests by understanding beetle flight

The mountain pine beetle is one of the main causes of tree mortality in the pine forests of North America. For example, the insect has killed thousands of acres of pine forest in British Columbia and Alberta, and as a result, ...

Improving bloodstain pattern analysis with fluid dynamics

Often left on the surfaces of a crime scene or on the clothes of an accused criminal, blood backspatter can be used as evidence for forensic scientists to reconstruct what occurred. However, the fluid dynamics at play are ...

Stopping storms from creating dangerous urban geysers

During intense rainstorms, residents of urban areas rely on stormwater sewers to keep streets and homes from flooding. But in some cases, air pockets in sewers combine with fast-moving water to produce waterspouts that can ...

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