From the mixing of milk in coffee to the formation of raindrops in clouds, the physics of turbulent flow is everywhere. Researchers at Cornell have discovered that seemingly random turbulent flows, which are the flow of a fluid in which velocity varies rapidly and irregularly, actually have an astonishing structure.

The work, published online June 5 in the journal Nature Physics, was led by Eberhard Bodenschatz, Cornell adjunct professor of physics and of mechanical and aerospace engineering. The work was in collaboration with researchers Haitao Xu of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Germany and Alain Pumir of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. more