Giant Bubbles

This video is just awesome. No two ways about. Science stuff: 1) the bubbles are multicolored due to the different film thicknesses scattering the different wavelengths of light to different degrees like a prism and 2) you can see when the bubbles pop that the film is trying to minimize is surface area to volume ratio. A bubble has a very large surface area to volume ratio, while a droplet has a very low surface area to volume ratio.

Tractor Pulling

Though this may seem kind of pointless and bad for the environment, it's still really cool. And racing in all forms is essentially just R&D, just a really cool form of R&D. There are some neat engines toward the end of the video, including a quad-turbine tractor and a tractor that has a 42 cylinder 10,000hp radial engine. If that's not a feat of engineering, I don't know what is.

Electret: The electric field equivelent of a magnet

So, magnets have permanent magnetic fields and electrets have a permanent electric field. Note that this is completely different than an electromagnet that generates a magnetic field due to an electric current. It seems like the main uses for these things are as sensors in microphones and dust collectors in air filters, but I think they have more potential, they just don't get the same attention that their magnetic counterparts do. They are made in an analogous way to ceramic magnets. A highly dielectric material melt is cooled and solidified in a strong electric field which aligns the molecules in the solid creating a permanent electric field.

Granular Materials

Sand. Table Salt. Powders of any kind. These are classified as granular materials and this subject has been studied intensely by scientists and engineers in many fields (mechanical, chemical, materials, etc). From the perspective of a new researcher, this field has been beaten to death. The compaction of powders under pressure (aka jamming) is what differentiates the flow of powder from the flow of liquids. There are some other unique flow properties of powders such as the "Brazilian nut effect" where larger grained materials (Brazilian nuts) can flow to the top of a vibrating container that contains multiple grain sizes in it. So here is a very dorky powder simulation game. I spent more time playing around with it than I expected to.

http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/

Superhydrophobicity

A hydrophobic material is one that repels water and a hydrophilic material is one that likes water. Pretty obvious. It's not so obvious how to go about testing where a material falls on the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity scale. This is where something called the contact angle comes into play. It's the angle made at the interface of a water droplet with air at the surface of a solid material. Here's a picture that will clarify.

This test can be done with any two fluids (air and water are the most common) at a solid surface to compare surface tensions of different materials. When the contact angle is less than 90 degrees the surface is considered hydrophilic and if the contact angle is more than 90 degrees it is considered hydrophobic. If the contact angle is greater than 150 degrees then the surface is considered super-hydrophobic. There's not too much work on superhydrophilicity but a contact angle of nearly 0 degrees is the general consensus.
So why are super-hydrophobic surfaces worth writing a blog post about? Well, they can be used to reduce drag anywhere that a surface is pulled against water (hulls of ships, inside of pipes, etc). They can also be used as a self cleaning surface coating, so anytime it rains, dirt will be easily swept away. Imagine cleaning your car (well) by leaving it out in the rain.

Gucci Mane X Mother 3

Let's just say a little birdie told me about this video/song. Gucci Mane and anime seem to go pretty well together. Whodathunk it.

Magnetohydrodynamic Drive

Actually, a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) drive uses some electrohydrodynamics as well. Generally salt water flows though the poles of a magnet while a current is run through the salt water. The interaction of the current and the magnetic field cause a force that pushes the ions. The ions drag the water with them creating a jet and propelling the craft in the opposite direction. Get all that? No? Well you're in luck because there's a picture that explains everything, just replace the plasma with salt water.