The Shakes

So the wet dog phenomenon is hardly news to anyone who has ever given a dog a bath or tried to dried one after a rain storm. They shake. But exactly how fast do they rid themselves of the unwanted water?

That is exactly the question that Andrew Dickerson, a graduate student at Georgia Tech set out to answer in a study recently published in the journal, Fluid Dynamics. Using a high speed camera, Dickerson and his team took footage of all sorts of animals, from bears to mice shaking themselves dry.

And what they found is that when it comes to getting dry, size does matter. A mouse has to shake much much faster than a bear to rid itself of water droplets clinging to its fur.

Not earth shattering, you might think but consider this. The real-world implications may be in new washing machine designs which essentially mimic the actions of animals. That is the focus of all of Dickerson's research: discovering mechanisms found in nature.

No word yet on his next topic of investigation.