Fluid

Harvard engineers have created a strange new “metafluid” – a liquid that can be programmed to change properties, like its compressibility, transparency, viscosity and even whether it’s Newtonian or not.

In fluid dynamics, hard science often comes with dazzling aesthetic beauty – a fact the American Physical Society highlights annually with a photo/video contest. Here are this year's winners – equal parts fascinating, hypnotic and visually stunning.

A large percentage of a building’s energy usage is consumed by heating and cooling, but a new dynamic shading system could help. Inspired by the skin of krill, the system uses cells of blooming pigment that can block light on demand.

Curtains or blinds might eventually get the flick in favor of smart windows. Now a team of engineers has demonstrated a new design. Dubbed Large-Area Fluidic Windows (LaWin), the system uses iron particles suspended in liquid to block sunlight at different levels, and harvest its heat energy.

Thanks to gravity, fluids flow downwards following the path of least resistance. Now researchers at Brandeis University have mixed biological molecules into a substance that marks the first steps towards developing a self-propelling liquid, that could flow free of human or gravitational influence.