Of Trees, Fighter Jets, And The Mysteries Of Science Funding
Friday, December 2, 2011 - 18:10
in Earth & Climate
By the time Dr. Maciej Zwieniecki returned to the blackboard, I’d gotten sufficiently lost in the intricacies of fluid dynamics that I wasn’t sure how much more I could absorb from his lecture on vertical water transport in trees. Still, I could objectively admire his off-the-cuff artwork as he brushed away a cross-section of a tree and quickly outlined a perfectly recognizable…fighter jet?The audience watched, bemused. Maciej chuckled, then explained how mechanisms borrowed from tree physiology might one day be used to efficiently transfer heat from jet wings to the cockpit. At least, that’s what the Department of Defense, which funded his basic research on tree mechanics, hoped. read more