Fluids articles from across Nature Portfolio

Active turbulence is a dynamic state of active nematics that is in three dimensions realized as a network of reconfiguring and proliferating disclination lines. This work explores the scaling properties of active turbulence with material constants and the chirality-driven transition from a chiral active turbulence to an active blue phase.

Droplet interface bilayers can be used as a model of artificial membranes for synthetic biology and drug delivery applications, however, their accessibility using non-invasive techniques remains challenging. Here, the authors develop an in-situ bilayer manipulation of encapsulated droplet interface bilayers in hydrogel capsules, generated by high-order emulsification in monolithic 3D-printed microfluidic devices.

Asymmetric mechanical transducers are pivotal in various applications; however, conventional methods demand continuous energy and intricate fabrication. Here, the authors demonstrate a droplet-based mechanical transducer utilizing wettability-patterned surfaces, enabling precise control of droplet dynamics.

Here the authors identify a generic coupling in phase-separated liquids between motility and phase equilibria perturbations: phase-separated droplets swim to their dissolution. This suggests alternative transport mechanism for biomolecular condensates.

An article in Science presents a method for deep-penetration volumetric printing.

Drops sitting on an array of parallel fibres spontaneously move along the fibres when subject to an airflow perpendicular to the array. The drops show long-range aerodynamic interactions with their downstream and upstream neighbours, and these can catalyse drop coalescence and removal of drops from the fibres — relevant for applications such as fog harvesting and filtration.

Liquid metals are promising multifunctional materials, but their single-colour physical appearance limits their applicability. There are several methods to endow liquid metals with colour and fluorescence, and although breakthroughs have been made in controlling their optical and interfacial properties, more work is needed to refine the synthetic strategies, better understand the coloration effects and enable the applications of colourful liquid metals.

A fully automated, high-throughput computational framework accurately predicts stable species in liquid solutions by computing the nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts. Data collected from the framework can provide fingerprints to guide the rational design of liquid solutions with optimal properties.