水珠在油面快速滑动的秘密（下）

I mean, that was one of the moments where I was like, No way like, This is crazy.

那一刻，我觉得不可能，这太疯狂了。

But what was even more surprising was the explanation. And that came when they looked at the super slow motion videos.

但更令人惊讶的是这个解释，即他们查看超慢动作视频时发现的情况。

And we actually saw the surface of the droplet moving at this frequency that suggested that it's vibrating due to boiling events like bubbling.

我们实际上观察到，水珠表面在以某种频率运动，而这表明水珠因存在像冒泡这样的沸腾事件而振动。

So as the water inside the drop boils bubbles form.

油珠内部的水沸腾时会形成气泡。

The bubbles trapped inside the oil film cause the drop to go from perfectly circular to changing rapidly between asymmetric shapes. It looks like a sort of chaotic vibrating.

这些被困在油膜内部的气泡使水珠从完美球形迅速变为不对称形状。看起来像是一种混乱的振动。

And it means that the bottom of the drop is changing between different wavy shapes and no longer fully in contact with the oil the way it would be if it stayed as a perfectly circular drop.

这意味着，水珠底部在不同波浪形状之间变化，不再像完美球形时那样与板上的油层紧密接触。

So the friction is much lower. And the drop can go really fast.

因此相应的摩擦力要小得多，水珠运动的速度也快得多。

These are things that you see in very complex physical systems.

这些现象往往出现在非常复杂的物理系统中。

So we are like, quite both first, quite stumped in the beginning to then later on, delighted by figuring this out.

所以我们一开始困惑不已，后来又为终于弄明白了这个问题而非常兴奋。

But they don’t have it all figured out yet. There is one question in particular they want to look at next:

但是，他们并没有完全解开所有谜团。接下来，他们特别想研究这样一个问题：

But why does the vapor eject from one side, right? Or how does it choose that?

蒸汽为什么会从一侧喷出? 又或者说，它如何选择从哪一侧喷出?

That's still a mystery for us. And we are figuring that out. Because once we know that we can then direct the motion of the drops to the way we want them.

对我们来说，这仍然是未解之谜。我们正努力解开谜题，因为一旦解开，我们就能如自己所想控制水珠运动。

If they can harness this power, these forces could be used for many different applications.

如果他们能利用这种力，那么就可以将其应用到许多不同的领域。

From handling tiny amounts of liquid for biotech applications, to cleaning films that build up in water treatment, to moving liquids in microgravity on other planets, to even carrying molecules to make tiny robotic delivery systems.

从生物技术中的微量液体处理，到水处理系统中的清洁薄膜，再到其他行星微重力环境下的液体移动，甚至是携带分子的微型机器人递送系统。

And it all started as a flash of insight in the frying pan.

而这一切都始于平底锅上的灵光一现。

Thanks for listening. For Scientific American’s 60 Second Science, I’m Sarah Vitak.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是莎拉·维塔。