Raindrops aren’t teardrop-shaped—they’re more like hamburger buns, shaped by surface tension and air resistance as they fall ...

Too big and the drop will break apart due to insufficient surface tension, regardless of whether it's water, methane or superheated, liquid iron as on an exoplanet called WASP-76b.

In response, Long says: “We show that raindrops fell and left impressions on the surface. Then the creatures walked across it, leaving crisp prints over the raindrops.

Raindrops form into this shape because of the surface tension of water, which is sometimes described as a "skin" that makes the water molecules stick together. But the molecules don't form a skin.

Andrew Dickerson’s research into what happens to water striders when raindrops strike has already made many, many waves (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2024, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2315667121). Credit ...

Water striders are a common sight on ponds, vernal pools and puddles. During clear summer days, these insects seem to walk on water, a feat they accomplish through a combination of long legs that ...

Have you ever dipped your hand into water and pulled it out completely dry? It sounds like magic, but it’s science! All you need is a little powder and a bowl of water.

It is a small-scale version of hydropower, which uses the kinetic energy of moving water to produce electricity. Researchers have proposed that the energy collected from raindrops could be a ...

Surfactants, such as those produced by forest fires, complicate the situation and have been detected in raindrops 8, but their presence should lower the surface tension and therefore the Weber number.

Today, more than 70% of Earth is covered in liquid water. But long before the sea became a familiar feature of our planet’s surface, the water that now fills our oceans, lakes, and streams was ...

Using nanocapillaries to understand the fundamental structure and behaviour of waterWater is everywhere. It’s essential to all life forms, so is ubiquitous. It also carries enormous energy. 70% of ...

In response, Long says: “We show that raindrops fell and left impressions on the surface. Then the creatures walked across it, leaving crisp prints over the raindrops.