Brine shrimp are about a centimeter long and swim upside down, beating their legs madly and trailing their elongated abdomens behind them like tails. As scientists recently learned, these tiny swimmers can do more than just move themselves. Researchers have long thought that in a turbulent system like a current of #water, #energy flows in only one direction, from larger scales to smaller ones, or vice versa, depending on the system’s dimensions. But in observing the humble brine shrimp, scientists realized that — with just a tiny adjustment — the flow of energy could be reversed. The discovery capitalized on a fundamental, if often unrecognized, mathematical description of how forces interact to push energy through a system. #physics #turbulence https://www.quantamagazine.org/sea-monkeys-show-scientists-how-to-rewrite-a-rule-of-turbulence-20261002/