Using text-mined trait data to test for cooperate-and-radiate co-evolution between ants and plants.

Mutualisms may be "key innovations" that spur lineage diversification by augmenting niche breadth, geographic range, or population size, thereby increasing speciation rates or decreasing extinction rates. Whether mutualism accelerates diversification in both interacting lineages is an open question. Research suggests that plants that attract ant mutualists have higher diversification rates than non-ant associated lineages.

Observation of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in cylindrical geometry.

We report on observations of a free-Shercliff-layer instability in a Taylor-Couette experiment using a liquid metal over a wide range of Reynolds numbers, Re∼10(3)-10(6). The free Shercliff layer is formed by imposing a sufficiently strong axial magnetic field across a pair of differentially rotating axial end cap rings. This layer is destabilized by a hydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz-type instability, characterized by velocity fluctuations in the r-θ plane.