  Electron transport through a nanostructure can be characterized in part using
concepts from classical fluid dynamics. It is thus natural to ask how far the
analogy can be taken, and whether the electron liquid can exhibit nonlinear
dynamical effects such as turbulence. Here we present an ab-initio study of the
electron dynamics in nanojunctions which reveals that the latter indeed
exhibits behavior quite similar to that of a classical fluid. In particular, we
find that a transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs with increasing
current, corresponding to increasing Reynolds numbers. These results reveal
unexpected features of electron dynamics and shed new light on our
understanding of transport properties of nanoscale systems.
