Biological fluid dynamics is a research area that applies the principles and methods of fluid mechanics to analyze flows generated by, within, or around living organisms across scales from subcellular to ecological. It investigates how fluid properties, boundary conditions, and flexible or actuated biological structures interact to determine transport, locomotion, feeding, signaling, and morphogenesis in systems such as blood circulation, ciliary flows, microorganism swimming, plant transpiration, and animal flight or swimming. The field integrates continuum mechanics, low- and high-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics, nonlinear dynamics, and computational modeling with experiments to elucidate biophysical mechanisms and to inform biomedical and bioinspired engineering applications.
Researchers in Hong Kong and the UK have revealed how one species of self-propelling microbes can actively change the path of their swimming motions, depending on how much light they receive. Reporting in Physical Review ...
Egg yolk may appear runny and uniform, but on the nanoscale, it is one of the most crowded biological fluids in nature. Packed with proteins and fats, it serves as a dense storage reservoir for a developing embryo. Yet the ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 23, 2026
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A horse's whinny is an unusually distinctive mix of sounds including both high and low frequencies. Reporting in Current Biology, researchers demonstrate how horses produce high-frequency sounds that defy their large size ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 23, 2026
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Many fish appear to hang effortlessly in the water while they wait for prey, defend a nest or pause between bursts of activity. But our research shows that this quiet stillness is anything but effortless. Hovering, the behavior ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 21, 2026
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To stay in the air when hovering over a flower, bumble bees continually flap their wings rapidly, a metabolic process that generates a massive amount of internal heat. Their flight muscles work so intensely that they can ...
Going to space is harsh on the human body, and as a new study from our research team finds, the brain shifts upward and backward and deforms inside the skull after spaceflight.
Space Exploration
Feb 14, 2026
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In nanoscale particle research, precise control and separation have long been a bottleneck in biotechnology. Researchers at the University of Oulu have now developed a new method that improves particle separation and purification. ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 9, 2026
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The human kidney filters about a cup of blood every minute, removing waste, excess fluid, and toxins from it, while also regulating blood pressure, balancing important electrolytes, activating Vitamin D, and helping the body ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 9, 2026
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A team of physicists from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators, has identified the dominant physical mechanism responsible for energy release in the nuclear ...
General Physics
Feb 9, 2026
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McGill researchers have developed a diagnostic system capable of identifying bacteria—and determining which antibiotics can stop them—in just 36 minutes, a major advance in the global effort to curb antimicrobial resistance ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 4, 2026
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