Category: Science
-
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…
-
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…
-
Syed says world-class athletes are made, not born
Matthew Syed, author of “Bounce: How Champions Are Made” and a former Olympic table tennis player, believes that an individual’s ability is secondary to the level of coaching they receive and the facilities to which they have access. Via Public Health “When I became English No. 1, I thought I must be super talented. But…
-
Underwater breath-holding improves your intelligence ?
According to Dr. Win Wenger, author of 48 books including How To Increase Your Intelligence and The Einstein Factor, we can all gain 10 or more IQ points if we accumulate 20 hours of held-breath underwater swimming in doses of 20-180 seconds at a time over a 3 week period. Including better span of attention, better…
-
EPFL develops full-body sensor suits to improve swimmers’ training
Scientists from EPFL’s Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement (LMAM) have developed waterproof inertial systems to be sewn into full-body swimming suits, equipped with accelerometers and gyroscope, which can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of elite-level swimmers during workout sessions. Parameters are for instance instantaneous swimming speed and coordination, and the swimmer’s gas exchange by…
-
The mental challenge of chasing gold
CNN’s Ben Wyatt looks at the psychological challenge faced by top athletes. Via Gold Medal Mel on Facebook
-
Altitude training not helping Australian elite swimmers
The Australian Institute of Sport, working with Australia’s national swim team, has just published a new study of altitude training in the Europe Journal of Applied Physiology, where they took 37 elite swimmers and divided them into three groups: Classic altitude training: three weeks in Sierra Nevada, Spain (2,320 meters) LHTL, spending at least 14…
-
Wow, dolphins can snore (or sleep-talk) whale ?
Dolphins are known mimics, able to make whale sounds because they’ve heard them before. Now a recent study suggest that they can do this even while asleep, and even though they were born in captivity, and therefore never met actually a whale. Researchers from the University of Rennes in France placed underwater microphones in a…
-
More than half of all swimmers might not benefit from their usual competition warm-up
Interesting post here on Sweat Science, on how researchers at University of Alabama put 16 NCAA swimmers through three 50-yards sprints on separate days, so that each tried one without any warm-up at all, one with a short, standardized 2×50 yard warm-up, and one with the swimmers’ usual individual warm-ups, averaging about 1300 meters. The…