Other Strange Images

Interesting patterns form in a thin horizontal layer of a system with a first-order phase change. When heated from below, it is possible for a dense phase to be stratified above a less dense one. Hexagonal patterns occur, but other rather unusual poorly understood but very attractive patterns occur as well.

From G. Ahlers, in Pattern Formation in Liquid Crystals, edited by L. Kramer and A. Buka (Springer, 1996).