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Added on 07/03/06
Using a tank designed to mimic a turbulent waterway, scientists have found that fish employ a unique and clever swimming motion to harness the energy of eddies in flowing water. By essentially hitching a ride and letting these vortices propel them...
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Using a tank designed to mimic a turbulent waterway, scientists have found that fish employ a unique and clever swimming motion to harness the energy of eddies in flowing water. By essentially hitching a ride and letting these vortices propel them along, the scientists say, fish can swim against a current with considerably less exertion than is required in calmer settings. The work provides new insights into the hydrodynamic benefits fish reap by swimming in schools. Researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) report the results in the Nov. 28 issue of the journal Science. "The annual upstream voyage of fish to spawn has long been viewed as one of the classic struggles of the natural world, but our work suggests that this journey may not be nearly as exhausting and heroic as it appears," says author James C. Liao, a graduate student in Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. "Rather than swimming blindly upstream through... See less 
