“For example, if you ask, can I predict what happens next when I poke this region of turbulence? The answer is no. Not even really with a supercomputer.”
Physicists still cannot predict what turbulence does next, partly because every experiment has a wall or a paddle in the way. A UChicago team put vortex ring generators in the eight corners of a box and fired rings at the center until a ball of turbulence formed and stayed put, away from the walls. Now lasers and fast cameras can measure its energy and helicity directly. The breakthrough is a test chamber, not an answer.