Science
Poetry in motion: Engineers analyze the fluid physics of movement in marine snails – EurekAlert
In a new interdisciplinary study that combines intellectual curiosity with awe, researchers show in detail that the swimming and sinking behaviors of tropical marine snails are influenced by body size and shell shape, as predicted from fluid physics theory.
In the world’s oceans, billions of tiny marine snails (a form of plankton) commute daily between surface waters, where they feed at night, to depths of several hundred metres during the day to rest while avoiding predators. Marine snails play an important role in geochemical cycles and climate: 12-13% of the global carbonate flux occurs when the calcium carbonate shells of dead snails sink to the depths, where they dissolve and contribute to atmospheric carbon and ocean acidification. But becaus…
