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VIDEO: Experiments on a network with two loops, the lower subject to oscillations that mimic breathing and the upper developing one-way flow.
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Credit: NYU's Applied Mathematics Laboratory
Birds breathe with greater efficiency than humans due to the structure of their lungs--looped airways that facilitate air flows that go in one direction--a team of researchers has found through a series of lab experiments and simulations.
The findings will appear Fri., March 19 in the journal
Physical Review Letters (to be posted between 10 and 11 a.m. EDT).
The study, conducted by researchers at New York University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, also points to smarter ways to pump fluids and control flows in applications such as respiratory ventilators.