We show that the bursts are a relaxation oscillator. The "switch" is the salt itself: it resists crystallizing and re-dissolving at the same humidity (hygroscopic hysteresis), so the system loads up, discharges, and resets — over and over.

1926: Van der Pol writes down the "relaxation oscillator" — slow build-up, sudden discharge, on repeat. 1297: Washburn describes "salt creeping" — crystals crawling out of an evaporating salt solution. Turns out they're the same story. 🧵 👇

Pretty decent views from the office-for-the-next-few-months.

As part of his magnificent M.Sc thesis at @pcc-wur.bsky.social , Christoph shows how to harness viscoelasticity to control spontaneous self-emulsification of multicomponent droplets. More in the open access article: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...