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BOXFISH:   The boxfish is a living brick with fins. Its bony rigid box-shaped carapace is the last shape you’d expect to make a fish able to maneuver around the nooks and crannies of a coral reef.

BOXFISH: In 2015 scientists at the University of Antwerp, Belgium learned the box fish secret.  The boxfish uses the vortices created by its unusual shape which bring both stabilization and destabilization of the fish.

BOXFISH: The boxfish swims skillfully through the wild currents surrounding coral reefs by the skillful use of its dorsal and pectoral fins and its stiff caudal fin.

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS:   The emperor penguin has one of the most unusual ways in the animal world to achieve power swimming. They do something that no one ever dreamed of… It’s so amazing that it may change the way our most powerful ships and submarines move through the seas.

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS: There are 118 species of penguins from the 70-pound emperor penguin to the tiny two-pound fairy penguin. They come complete with cute feet, snazzy headdresses, and pudgy babies.

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS:   The mother penguin lays her egg on her feet. Her stomach fat sags down and provides a cozy blanket of protection until the egg is ready to hatch.

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS:   When Emperor Penguins set out on long pilgrimages, they turn themselves into flipper-powered toboggans and zip down hills lightning fast.

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS:    Emperor penguins have over 90,000, feathers! 100 feathers per square inch!  Most have their own fluffing and compressing muscles.  They also have 20 micron filoplume feathers which are half the thickness of a human hair.  These basically act like little air nets. 

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS:   The emperor penguins preen and fluff the feathers to fill them with air before diving. As they head deeper under water, feathers are gently compressed on their air supply to hold the air in.  When they start to surface from 30 feet below, the feathers are squeezed tighter by tens of thousands of tiny muscles. A weird blue bubble cloud appears covering its body with a uniform bubble jacket just 1/3 inch thick. They gain enough speed that the penguins can rocket out of the water and land 5 feet up on craggy icebergs feet first.

PENGUIN FLUID DYNAMICS: Air that is trapped in the penguin feathers is released as tiny micro-bubbles. Together the bubbles form a thin lubricating coat on the feather surface–a nearly friction-free barrier through the water. This enables emperor penguins to accelerate how many times their normal swimming speed and zip past predators like leopard seals.