We get phase change before infinity

There seems to be a fairly sharp threshold at which fluid flowing smoothly in a pipe becomes turbulent, yet the precise mechanics have long been a mystery. Does it happen all at once, or in stages? In a series of landmark experiments, German physicist Bjorn Hof and colleagues offer new insight: Turbulence emerges in the form of little puffs -- tiny regions of confused, disorganized flow -- which can then split, creating more puffs. Below a certain speed of flow, the puffs die out more quickly than they split: Even if you create some turbulence by putting your finger in the flow, it will soon subside. But above a critical speed, the splitting happens faster than the dying out, causing the turbulence to spread. Weirdly, it seems to grow following precisely the same mathematics as diseases.

Here the physicists are talking about incompressible, but divisible flow.  What happens to the fluid as is blows past the moving sphere? Well, the equations are proved according to Newton's grammar, the algorithm proves to recursively converge, but the algorithms generate ever high flow velocities.  At some point, real fluids cavitate, they form a minute bubble of gas.  Then the bubble is compressible, we get constricted flow.  Again, it is the renormalization concept, and a bit of the relativity. The fluid cannot adjust faster than predicted velocity,  kind of a relativity concept.

This is not a new concept, I dunno what the mathematicians are up to here. I thought I remembered this stuff from college physics. For example, on your van, put your bike rack at the nose so as the prematurely break up the flow. There is a regime where smooth flow is no efficient because of pressure buildup. I guess they are digging deeper into it, it is closely related to what we do in the pits.

OK, I get it

This is about the mechanics of triple points. Like, the mechanical structure of ice cannot respond to a temperature gradient faster than heat, so the ice breaks its phase structure and becomes water. Scientists are nailing this process, great. I will bet they discover it is all about queuing up, the queues jam and renormalize.