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from the people-don't-think-nature-be-like-it-is,-but-it-do dept.
Dandelion seeds fly using 'impossible' method never before seen in nature
Dandelion seeds fly using a method that researchers thought couldn't work in the real world, according to a study published on 17 October in Nature.
When some animals, aeroplanes or seeds fly, rings of circulating air called vortices form in contact with their wings or wing-like surfaces. These vortices can help to maintain the forces that lift the animal, machine or seed into the air.
Researchers thought that an unattached vortex would be too unstable to persist in nature. Yet the light, puffy seeds of dandelions use vortices that materialize just above their surfaces and lift the seed into the air.
Also at the University of Edinburgh and BBC.
A separated vortex ring underlies the flight of the dandelion (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0604-2) (DX)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @07:47PM (1 child)
This like when people say bumblebees and helicopters can't fly. All that means is the theory is wrong.
(Score: 3, Touché) by legont on Friday October 19 2018, @12:50AM
Actually bumblebees are flying using conventional theory. There is not much of a math difference between bumble bee and 747.
This one is very cool though - a new type of "wing". Looks like it has a bright future in nanotech where those flying spies and killer robots were limited greatly by ordinary wing designs.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.