Baget & Nefrit
Baget Baget
Hey Nefrit, ever noticed how the steam swirling from a fresh espresso can look like a tiny dragon breathing fire? I’ve been sketching that and wondering if ancient cultures had something similar in their myths—maybe the steam was seen as a messenger of the gods. What do you think? Does the science of steam have any hidden stories behind it?
Nefrit Nefrit
That’s an interesting visual. Steam is just water vapor; it forms when the liquid temperature rises above its boiling point and the molecules gain enough energy to escape the liquid phase. The way it curls up is governed by convection, surface tension, and the shape of the container. The patterns you see are basically physics in motion, nothing supernatural. But humans have always attached stories to everyday phenomena. In many mythologies, fire or breath is associated with divine power or communication—think of dragons or the Greek god Hephaestus who worked in fire. A steam plume looking like a dragon could very well have inspired such tales. From an empirical standpoint, there’s no hidden mechanism in steam that links it to gods; the myths just reflect how people projected meaning onto the natural world. So scientifically, it’s just hot water vapor, but culturally it can become a messenger of the gods.