Wine and Water: Convection in Pure and Binary Fluids

In the past twelve months, there has been an upsurge in interest in the convective flow produced when a horizontal layer of a binary fluid mixture is heated from below. In this system, the Soret effect (thermally induced concentration diffusion) can affect flow as strongly as thermal buoyancy, leading to bizarre behavior. In particular, recent experiments have revealed the propensity of convective rolls to move horizontally, in the form of travelling waves.