Wondering

In general, it is dangerous to look close to the sun, but if you are careful, you may be rewarded. Example: the corona. The corona shows vivid colors at the price of being close (in angle) to the dazzling sun. It is essentially the same phenomena as cloud iridescence, a topic I described a few months...

Various versions of this idea been around at least since the 1930s, but I was a little saddened to see it in a recent book* by science journalist Phillip Ball: The snow crystal (not snowflake**) certainly invites speculations, doesn’t it? So small and pure, yet containing much beauty, variety,...

Fog often arises from a gentle mixing of air. Some of the air will be warmer and with more vapor, while other air is cooler and with less vapor. In wet areas near the ground, as well as over water, the vapor is often near saturation for its temperature (i.e., near 100% humidity). When near-saturated...