Category: Science
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Swumanoid the humanoid sheds light on the mechanics of swimming
Behold Swumanoid, a bot created by researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, to reproduce a swimmer’s full body movement and measure water resistance in an effort to shed some light on the forces acting on swimmers. Not so fast yet, PB 2:30 over 100 meters, but maybe one day … Via Engadget
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10-20-30 training concept improves health and performance with less training
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have come up with a new training concept for runners that shows an increase in health and performance of up to a minute on a 5K run despite a 50% reduction in amount of training. They say that 30 minute is all you need, therefore easily adapted into a…
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Toothless whales use fat to listen
If that was me, I’d be like Heimdallr hearing grass as it grows on the earth ! :-) “Scientists have long understood the way dolphins and toothed whales have been able to hear underwater. These animals have a special type of fat surrounding their jaws which can relay sounds from the ocean to their ears.…
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On the Waterfront – a Professor Barrow’s Maths in Sports lecture
“Swimming is, I always believe the most technical, scientifically technical of all the common sports”. I like you already, Mr. Professor! :-)
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Dara Torres training video courtesy of REFUEL
Great video here featuring Dara Torres, who together with five other 2012 USA Swimming team hopefuls and other prominent US athletes is backing the new REFUEL | “got chocolate milk?â„¢” campaign. You know, there is science supporting refueling with chocolate milk, and it is delicious also. Via The Sacramento Bee.
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How body fat helps Lynne Cox swim in the waters of Antartica
Science doesn’t full understand how she does it, but ocean swimmer Lynne Cox survives in water that is cold enough to kill. Researchers have been trying to understand her unique ability for 30 years. Read more here on CBS News
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There is something in the abyss that says “quack”
Marine ecologist Rodney Rountree modified a few mp3-players into waterproof, deep-sea recording devices, attached them to crab traps and sent them 2000 feet below the ocean’s surface for 24 hours. As expected they heard whales and stuff that they could identify, but also frequent samples of at least 12 deep-sea sounds that they couldn’t identify,…
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Speedo Fastskin FS II did not reduce drag, say scientists (now)
Researching how toothlike scales on sharks reduce drag by generating vortexes on the front edge of the skin, eddies that essentially would suck the shark forward, Harvard University bioroboticist George Lauder and graduate student Johannes Oeffner at Lauder Lab also looked at shark-skin mimics like the Speedo Fastskin II fabric and silicon rubber “riblets” used…
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DARPA zaps snipers’ brains to induce flow, cut down training time
Interesting article here on NewScientist, on how (mad?) scientists are learning to harness “flow”, by telling for instance swimmers to focus on the water’s movement around their limbs, rather than on the limbs. And by running electricity through the brain. Weisend, who is working on a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme to accelerate…