The emperor penguin can jet through the water and leap onto an ice shelf at an amazing speed. Marine biologists have suggested that it does so by releasing tiny air bubbles from between its feathers. As these bubbles are released, they reduce friction on the surface of the penguins plumage, enabling the bird to accelerate. Interestingly, engineers have been studying ways to make ships go faster by using bubbles to reduce friction against hulls. However, researchers acknowledge that further inestigation is challenging because the complexity of penguin plumage would be difficult to replicate in a man-made porous membrane or mesh...What do you think?
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:50:20 +0000
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