My Big Fat Lemon

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta recently recorded video of 40 different animals, representing 15 different species. The scientists wanted to see how wet, hairy mammals shake off water after they get drenched. What the videos revealed is that animals’ shaking behavior could be described by physics — the science of matter, energy and motion.

• The scientists say the animals oscillate at just the right frequencies to lose water droplets as efficiently as possible. Oscillate means to move back and forth, and frequency is the number of cycles — movements back and forth — per second.

“I think it’s pretty amazing they can do that,” David Hu told Science News. Hu is an engineer, but he’s also a mathematician and does research in biology. At his laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Hu studies the physics of fluids, which means he wants to know how fluids move and react to forces. He is particularly interested in how animals interact with water. Venus is a difficult planet to study from Earth because it is surrounded by thick clouds. Telescopes on Earth can’t see through these clouds, so the best information about Venus comes from spacecraft orbiting it.

• The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Venus on Jan. 24, 1995. The planet is completely surrounded by thick clouds.Photojournal/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

While in orbit, the Magellan craft sent microwaves, which can go through Venus’ clouds, to the surface. Microwaves are invisible and, despite their name, can be as long as three feet. These waves are a kind of energy, like light. And like light, they bounce off surfaces. The way the waves bounced off Venus' surface and back to the craft supplied information that the scientists used to estimate the temperature of various parts of the planet’s surface. Bondarenko’s team found that the lava flow was hotter than its surroundings — which may mean the lava flow is in the process of cooling.

The scientists say the lava flow can’t be very old because if it were, it would have cooled off enough that Magellan wouldn’t have noticed the difference in microwaves. Bondarenko told Science News the flow can’t be more than 100 years old. For a volcano, that’s still active. She adds that the flow appears in a 1978 view of the surface that a craft called the Pioneer Venus Orbiter captured.