Each year, the field of fluid dynamics, as mathematically demanding and challenging to the nonscientist as any field of physics, produces some of the most compelling and beautiful videos.

That’s partly because of the ability of modern technology to capture motion and movement we wouldn’t see with the naked eye. And it is partly because of the power of computing to create dazzlingly detailed simulations. But it’s also because the phenomena studied in fluid dynamics are just plain fascinating to watch.

In November, at the 68th meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics in Boston, seven videos won awards. Their subjects are as immediately appealing as the air flow around a hummingbird’s beating wings and as apparently arcane as “Placing Marangoni instabilities under arrest.” Not to worry, those instabilities are on the surface of soap bubbles.

All the videos are featured in the online Gallery of Fluid Motion. There is enough information with the videos to satisfy a scientist’s curiosity. But they are also simply astonishing to watch, even if you don’t choose to delve deeper into the study of “Lagrangian coherent structures in the flow field of a fluidic oscillator.”