Smashing gold ions creates most swirly fluid ever

Record-making vorticity found in quark-gluon plasma

gold ion collisions

GIVING IT A WHIRL  Collisions of gold ions in the STAR experiment create an intensely whirling fluid. The mess of particles emitted in such collisions (like the one shown above) allows scientists to study the swirls.

Brookhaven National Laboratory

High-energy ion collisions have produced the swirliest fluid ever discovered, in a state of matter that mimics the early universe.