Fascinating phenomenon.

Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh

Fascinating phenomenon. “This is an electric honeycomb. It’s what happens when certain kinds of electrically charged particles travel between a pointy electrode and a flat one, but bump into a puddle of oil along the way.

The polygonal pattern that emerges is what some physicists also call the rose-window instability, because it resembles the circular, stained-glass designs found in Gothic churches. It’s what happens as natural forces work to keep an electric charge moving in an interrupted circuit.

[…]

Physicists knew of this phenomenon decades before Muhammad Shaheer Niazi, a 17-year-old high school student from Pakistan met the electric honeycomb. In 2016, as one of the first Pakistani participants in the International Young Physicists’ Tournament, he replicated the phenomenon and presented his work as any professional scientist would. But he also developed photographic evidence of charged ions creating the honeycomb, and published his work Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

[…]

“I think it’s outstanding for so young a scientist to reproduce these results,” Dr. Pérez Izquierdo said.

Mr. Niazi hopes to further explore the mathematics of the electric honeycomb, and in the future, dreams of earning a Nobel Prize. In nature — and in the electric honeycomb — Mr. Niazi points out, “nothing wants to do excess work,” but he’s getting started early anyway.”

Ref: “The Electric Honeycomb; an investigation of the Rose window instability” [ http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/10/170503 ]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/science/electric-honeycomb.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js