THE mysterious lumps on the fins and heads of humpback whales make the
behemoths more manoeuvrable, say American researchers. The finding may inspire
new designs for boats and aircraft.
The lumps, or tubercles, have long puzzled biologists. So Philip Watts of
Applied Fluids Engineering, a company based in Long Beach, California, and Frank
Fish of West Chester University in Pennsylvania tried simulating the effect of
the tubercles on the leading edge of whales’ fins. To their surprise, they found
that the tubercles not only reduce drag by 10 per cent, but also increase lift
by 5 per cent. “It’s very…
