Nicole Sharp

Author of
How to Make a Raindrop: The Fluid Physics That Permeates Our World (Basic Books, 2027)

Nicole is an engineer, writer, and science communicator specializing in fluid dynamics. As a PhD student, she created the popular fluid dynamics blog FYFD, which she now runs full-time. In 2014, she completed her PhD in aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University studying the effects of surface roughness on hypersonic aerodynamics. She earned my Master’s degree from Cornell University studying subsonic turbulence and completed her undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University, also in aerospace engineering.

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How to Make a Raindrop: The Fluid Physics That Permeates Our World (Basic Books, 2027)

How to Make a Raindrop illuminates the physics that governs how things flow. We move from the mundane—what’s actually happening when we snore, how raindrops form and germs spread—to the extraordinary: singing dunes, mushrooms that make their own breeze, and, yes, a lizard that can run on water. Through it all, science communicator Nicole Sharp draws on the work of some of today’s most creative scientists, whose ingenious experiments are helping us understand vexing phenomena in cooking, transportation, and even public health. Fluid dynamics are at work everywhere we look, she shows, and they just might help us solve some of our most pressing challenges: climate change, microplastics pollution, global pandemics, and more.