Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff,
I was walking to Columbus Garage along the narrow path between Mugar and the Robinson tents on one side, with Curry Student Center looming on the other side, when something zipped by, a few feet above my shoulder. I was quite alarmed, until I saw that the something was a mallard duck who landed neatly on the pond right there, outside Starbucks. The duck casually shook a few drops off its head and looked around for something to eat. I was amazed. The pond is ~15 x 4 feet, and the path to that small patch of water is a cavern between buildings. But this was no biggie for the duck, who had confidently navigated to the spot it planned. I took a number of lessons from this. How refined is the navigation system of the duck, how accurate the 4D positional planning, how precise the speed control, how perfect the target identification, how all this was done with elegance and in beautiful plumage.
Of course, birds taught humans that flight was possible, inspiring study of how we can copy it. Early hopeful ideas were that you simply needed some wings, but later, physicists invented the field of aerodynamics which studies the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, like a wing. The process of ‘lift’ makes the bird or plane rise into the sky - exactly how this works remains controversial, although I believe there is agreement that force generated below the wing pushes it (and the attached bird or plane) upwards. As shown in this short video, birds have enormous finesse in use of lift, relative to human engineered devices.
Across scientific discovery, there’s always more to learn. For example, there is the case of bird lungs. You may know that birds can fly really high, even over the Himalayas, above 30,000 feet! How do they get enough oxygen to do this? It turns out that bird lungs are built differently than ours. Particularly, people breathe in air that replenishes blood oxygen for just a few seconds, then the air flow is reversed by breathing out and oxygenation stops during this time. In contrast, birds have looped lung tubes so that air flows in one direction both during breathing in and out, and there is oxygen replenishment of their blood throughout. The continuous oxygenation process extracts enough even at great heights, and the flow mechanism may suggest energy-efficient pumping approaches to engineers.
Starting with the Starbucks Duck, my lesson from birds is that they are brilliant at maneuvering, and outstanding at energy conversion, in a sustainable, smart way. In our Northeastern College of Science, we work to be brilliant and outstanding, to maneuver along the important 4D landscape of opportunities and challenges.
At the end of summer, I want to thank you for your outstanding and brilliant success over this time. Thank you for keeping COS offices well organized and running. Thank you for teaching in Summer 1 and Summer 2. Thank you for continuing your research, applying for funding and congratulations! for your awards. Thank you for giving undergraduates research opportunities, and to Rachelle Reisberg for her commitment to promoting this. Thank you to Bindu Veetel, Raj Jesudason, Stephan Kausch, Jude Matthews, Missy McElligott, Randall Hughes and everyone else involved in our Bridge to Science program. Thank you to Carla Mattos and Emma Newcombe for leading the second cohort of students in the unique, empowering Connected Science Community PhD Summer Skills Session! Thank you to Rachel Jones, Marya Mahmood, Zoe Kearney and Randall Hughes for organizing the first cross-College Week of Service, what a wonderful set of events! Thank you to Darien Wood and Zoe Kearney for organizing New Faculty Orientation, it’s a huge pleasure to welcome new faculty members into COS! Thank you to everyone I did not mention by name, for your unwavering commitment to our fantastic College and contributing to the innovative future of Northeastern University.
And thank you for gearing up for the new academic year, rushing to meet us, unstoppable. We have such important, exciting work ahead, together, building the Good Power of Science!
The Weekly Update resumes on September 6. Please enjoy these last days of summer, with stunning Boston weather to replenish our spirits. Warm wishes to everyone.