The ferrofluid art of Sachiko Kodama (via) (previously)
posted by Artw on Sep 3, 2008 - 11 comments

A liquid mirror telescope is made by spinning a reflective fluid, such as mercury, at a constant rate. This rotation produces a parabolic surface, which is an ideal shape for a telescope mirror. (You can try this yourself.) While these mirrors can be built to be large and orders of magnitude cheaper than solid mirrors, they have the disadvantage that they can only look straight up. Creating mirrors this way is not new; they have a history [.ps] that dates back to Newton. However, they have recently regained attention as the technology behind proposals to build an enormous (20m+) telescope on the moon. (A less technical treatment here.)
posted by Upton O'Good on Jul 1, 2008 - 36 comments

At the University of Texas, researchers have produced some amazing videos and photos of liquid bouncing on liquid. This was one of nature.com's Images of the Year for 2007 (picture number 6, in the upper-right corner). The project report, along with pictures and videos, is found on their bouncing jet page, and it's quite extraordinary both for the counter-intuitive nature of the phenomenon and the extremely low-tech production methods. You can even do it at home with little more than a lazy Susan and some silicone oil. [more inside]
posted by math on Mar 3, 2008 - 12 comments

Self Propelled Liquid Droplets : When a liquid drop is placed (.mov files) on a surface held at a temperature much higher than the liquid’s boiling point it hovers on its own vapor cushion, without wetting the surface.
posted by dhruva on Apr 6, 2006 - 24 comments

Liquid Sculpture uses bubbles in the liquid to draw three-dimensional graphical patterns. (via)
posted by buriednexttoyou on Jan 9, 2005 - 7 comments