Photographer and stormchaser extraordinaire Mike Olbinski is back with the fifth volume in his "Vorticity" series. Shot over the 2022 and 2023 tornado seasons in the U.S. Central Plains, this edition has virtually everything: supercells, microbursts, lightning, tornadoes, and haboobs. (Video and image credit: M. Olbinski)

Scientists are fascinated by the organized patterns that can emerge from non-living systems. Here, researchers study micron-sized magnetic particles, immersed in a viscoelastic fluid and subjected to an oscillating magnetic field. (Image, video, and research credit: G. Junot et al.; via APS Physics)

Pale plumes of sediment flow off these islands in the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka. As waves erode the land, currents and tides carry the sediment outward, shaping it into swirls and eddies. (Image credit: A. Nussbaum; via NASA Earth Observatory)

Uranus is an oddity among the planets of our solar system. Where other planets spin around an axis roughly in line with their orbital axis, Uranus spins on its side, placing its poles in line with the sun. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/VLA; research credit: A. Akins et al.; via Physics Today)

Removing the slug does not make a bullet harmless, as the Slow Mo Guys demonstrate in this video. They're shooting blanks -- casings that still contain propellant but no projectile. (Video and image credit: The Slow Mo Guys)

Antarctica is nearly fully covered in ice and doubles in surface area each winter as the surrounding sea freezes. So it's an especially spectacular place for viewing icebergs, like these photographed by Jan Erik Waider. (Image credit: J. Waider; via Colossal)

Researchers studying how fish swim have long focused on their tail fins and the flows created there. But a fish's other fins have important effects, too, as seen in this recent study. (Image credits: top - J. Sailer, simulation - J. Guo et al.; research credit: J. Guo et al.; via APS Physics)

With small droplets, gravity usually has little effect compared to surface tension. An evaporating water droplet holds its spherical shape as it evaporates. But the story is different when you add proteins to the droplet, as seen in this recent study. (Image, video, and research credit: D. Riccobelli et al.; via APS Physics)

For humans, staying cool in the summer heat often means expending energy on air conditioners, fans, and other cooling devices. But scientists are exploring other, less energy-intense options for beating the heat. (Image and research credit: Q. Shen et al.; via Ars Technica)

North of Iceland's Fagradalsfjall, a new volcanic fissure opened in July 2023. This drone footage from Isak Finnbogason captures that fissure on its first night. (Image and video credit: I. Finnbogason; via Colossal)

Understanding chaotic, turbulent flows has long challenged scientists and engineers due to their sheer complexity. (Image credit: D. Páscoa; research credit: C. Küchler et al.; via APS Physics)

In April 2023, swirls of green and turquoise burst into vivid color in the Atlantic. Much of the color comes from a phytoplankton bloom. (Image credit: L. Dauphin; via NASA Earth Observatory)

Getting around on sandy slopes is no easy feat. On steep inclines, even small disturbances will cause an avalanche. (Image credit: NEOM; research credit: M. Piñeirua et al.; via APS Physics)

Jupiter, our solar system's stormiest planet, shares many similarities with Earth. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/K. Gill; via APOD)

Colors stream and mix in Rus Khasanov's short film "Discovery." Droplet-like liquid lenses float in the mixture until ethanol or other ingredients cause them to spontaneously rupture, sending their interior flowing outward until the lens reaches a new equilibrium. (Video and image credit: R. Khasanov)

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French painters like Chardin and Manet had a certain fascination with bubble-blowing physics. Both left behind artwork depicting children blowing soap bubbles through straws. Now researchers are exploring this bubble-making method in a recent study. (Image credit: J. Chardin; research credit: M. Grosjean and E. Lorenceau; via Ars Technica)

Blow across the top of a glass bottle, and you'll get a whistle-like sound. Put some liquid in there and the pitch of the sound changes. Our vocal tracts are basically the same thing: a tube with a hole at the end. (Video and image credit: Be Smart)

In a cave, mineral-rich water drips from the ceiling, spreading ions used to build stalagmites. A recent study considers how the depth of a pool affects the droplet's splash and how material from the droplet spreads. (Image credit: cave - H. Roberson, others - J. Parmentier et al.; research credit: J. Parmentier et al.; via APS Physics; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)

In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted spectacularly, sending waves around the world through the air, water, and ground. In many ways, it was unlike any eruption scientists have observed. (Video credit: Science)