How birds make water defy gravity

MIT researchers have discovered how the phalarope transports food from the tip of its beak to its mouth

(telegraph) -- A bird is able to make drops of water defy gravity and flow into its mouth.

• Video: Watch vibrating droplet flow uphill
• British scientists make water defy gravity

A team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has shown that some shorebirds use their long, thin beaks in a tweezering motion to make prey-bearing water droplets rise upwards so they can be consumed.

The work is even more remarkable because last year a team at the University of Bristol, led by Prof Jens Eggers, thought that it was the first to make droplets flow up a slope, by vigorously vibrating the droplets, and announced the feat in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. full story