Flying Animals and Flying Machines

Turbulence and Flying Machines

54 RESONANCE ⎜ November 1999 This article is intended to introduce the young reader to the relationship between flight and fluid dynamics. It begins with a somewhat detailed discussion of what makes flight possible. Following this is a description of the effect of the nature of the flow on the drag. The connection between flow stability and drag-reduction, which is a topic of current interest i...

Those magnificent men and their flying machines.

Honeybee: The flying pharmacist

Honeybee, a small -although powerful- creature moves from one place to another to make an elixir, which cures different diseases. To make one kilogram of honey the small creature has to carry 150000 pieces of pollen and suck the sap of ten million flowers. Both honey and the honeybee poison have been used in treating diseases for thousands of years. The product made by such tiny creatures has b...

Honeybee: The flying pharmacist

Honeybee, a small -although powerful- creature moves from one place to another to make an elixir, which cures different diseases. To make one kilogram of honey the small creature has to carry 150000 pieces of pollen and suck the sap of ten million flowers. Both honey and the honeybee poison have been used in treating diseases for thousands of years. The product made by such tiny creatures has b...

Handedness helps homing in swimming and flying animals

Swimming and flying animals rely on their ability to home on mobile targets. In some fish, physiological handedness and homing correlate, and dolphins exhibit handedness in their listening response. Here, we explore theoretically whether the actuators, sensors, and controllers in these animals follow similar laws of self-regulation, and how handedness affects homing. We find that the acoustic s...