Sci-fi monster
Physics of burrowing sandfish
Computer simulations of lizards swimming through buckets of small glass beads
The sandfish lizard wriggles through desert sands like a sci-fi monster. Now, using computer simulations and bendy robots, researchers at Georgia Tech in Atlanta have taken the most complete look yet at the everyday physics of burrowing animals. And, boy, does this reptile wriggle, the team reports online February 23 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. "This particular behavior is built for speed," says physicist Daniel Goldman, one of the study coauthors. Like the deadly sandworms in the Dune science fiction series, a host of animals from scorpions to snakes haunt subterranean deserts across the planet. It's not easy to study how these creatures careen through their environments, Goldman says. Scientists have a good idea how water behaves in the wake of an undulating eel or how air flows over a bird wing. But shuffling sand grains ping off each other like a wickedly complicated game of pool. X-ray studies have shown that sandfish lizards (Scincus scincus) navigate such chaos with a wormlike wriggle, Goldman says, tucking in their legs and curling from side to side in S-shaped waves. A fast sandfish lizard dive covers two body lengths per second and the creatures can grow to 4 inches long, he adds. But just how the lizards achieve such speed in a complex sandy environment wasn't clear. For that, Goldman's team turned to a new set of tools.
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