“An eight-year-old girl kicked her feet back and forth on the seat of a Long Island Railroad train. I beckoned her to cover over and pointed to the top of Keep reading
Tag: active control
Drawing With Microfluidic Tweezers
One of the challenges of dealing with objects at the microscale is finding ways to manipulate them. This is what techniques like optical tweezers or magnetic traps are used for. The Keep reading
Hummingbird Hovering
Hummingbirds have a unique way of flying among birds. By flapping in a figure-8 motion, they generate lift on both the upstroke and the downstroke, which enables them to fly Keep reading
Fine-Tuning Flight
We humans generally use fixed wings for flight, but in nature, flapping flight dominates. As an animal flaps, it extends or draws in its wings during key points of the Keep reading
Stopping the Slosh
Sloshing is a problem with which anyone who has carried an overly full cup is familiar. Because of their freedom to flow and conform to any shape, fluids can shift Keep reading
Diving Peregrines
Few animals can compete with a peregrine falcon for pure speed. There is evidence that, when diving, the falcon can reach speeds upward of 200 mph (320 kph). That the Keep reading
Can a Squid Fly?
Can a Squid Fly? Evidence is mounting that several kinds of squid will use jets of water to propel themselves into the air where they can actively fly some 50 Keep reading