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A&M study finds magic formula of physics moves every kind of animal on earth
By Heather Alexander | February 20, 2014 | Updated: February 20, 2014 12:17pm
Photo By Bernard Radvaner/Special to The Chronicle
A scuba diver swims with a whale shark near Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica. Sharks, bats, moths, whales, birds have all been found to used the same Magic Movements.
Photo By BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty ImagesA picture taken from Galata Tower shows a seagull flying over the snow-covered old city of Istanbul on January 9, 2013.
Photo By BILLY CALZADA/STAFFMexican free-tailed bats, their wings translucent in the evening sky, emerge from the Bracken Bat Cave.
Photo By Francois Mori/APLesser White-fronted Geese prepare to land next to French pilot and migratory bird protector Christian Moulec (unseen) on a ultra light flight during the 40th Icare Cup paragliding festival in Saint Hilaire du Touvet, French Alps.
Photo By Getty ImagesChildren extend their hands to touch the image of a manta ray projected from a Sony's 4,096 x 2,160-pixels ultra-high resolution digital movie projector 4K SRX during a press preview at the company's showroom in Tokyo.
The Emperor moth
Photo By chron.commonsHumpback whales are highlights of Gayla Goff's trip to Maui, Hawaii.
Photo By Dan Kitwood/StaffSEAHOUSES, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: A Moon jellyfish swims beneath the waters of Inner Farne on June 26, 2011 at the Farne Islands, England.
Photo By Elaine Thompson/Associated PressA female resident orca whale breaches while swimming in Puget Sound near Bainbridge Island as seen from a federally permitted research vessel Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014.
Photo By Lintao Zhang/Getty ImagesWhite whales and their trainers present a show for visitors at Harbin Pole Aquarium on January 7, 2014 in Harbin, China.
Photo By apA baby giant manta ray swims inside a huge fish tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Motobucho, Okinawa Prefecture (State), southwestern Japan, Saturday, June 16, 2007.
Photo By APVisitors watch brown jellyfish at Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo.
A magic formula of physics is propelling animals across the planet, from birds and sharks to jellyfish, according to a new discovery by researchers at Texas A&M Univeristy.
While people struggle with fixed-wing aircraft and solid propellors, animals triumph with flexible wings, fins and tails and now we know that despite their other vastly differing characteristics, they are all moving in essentially the same way.
"We found insects, birds, bats, whales, fish, dolphins, even smaller molluscs are all using the same basic mechanics," said Marine Biologist Nathan Johnson from A&M at Galveston who did the study with colleagues from Harvard, California Institute of Technology, Indiana University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
It shows just how advanced Mother Nature's designs are compared to human engineering. Scientists hope their findings will help technology catch up with millions of years of evolution.
They found that the animals all flex their wing, tail or fin within a "magic range" of 30 to 60 degrees, and they all bend just 30% of whatever their relevant propulsor is.
Sounds obvious, but it's something humans have yet to replicate by relying only on stiff wings for aircrafts and similar non-flexible propellors for boats. Thus missing out on nature's discovery of a potentially perfect universal design.
"The best reason we can think that these similarities are there in nature is that they are the most energy efficient," said Johnson.
The hope is that now we do know more about how animals are moving we could revolutionise our designs.
"Until now, we have been able to observe animals using flexible wings or fins but we haven't known anything about how flexible a successful wing might need to be," Johnson said.
Efforts to replicate jellyfish movements in robotics have already been started, according to A&M.
"The goal is to make it easier than it was before to work out how designs should function," said Johnson. "So this research can be used in future designs."