I'm Steve Strogatz and this is the joy of why.

A podcast from Quantum Magazine that takes you into some of the biggest unanswered questions in math and science today.

People say that biology is a great teacher for engineers.

Just think about all that a soaring eagle can teach us about aerodynamics.

My guest today thought a jellyfish would be an instructive thing to study for a summer

internship in engineering.

And years later, he's still studying jellyfish for the wealth of information they have

to offer about fluid dynamics.

The subject of this episode.

What can the movement of jellyfish and schools

of fish teach us about the motion of air, water, and even blood? By studying the math of how

schools of fish move in unison, our guest today has been able to figure out how to place wind

turbines to generate clean energy more efficiently. But that's not all.

It turns out that the way a jellyfish swims can even inform us about the health of a human heart.

And jellyfish have taught us new tricks about underwater propulsion, which might be helpful to a new

generation of submarine design. But let's let our guest John DeBerry tell us more.

He's a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Caltech.

He won the Waterman Award in 2020,

the nation's highest honor for early career scientists and engineers.

He's also a member of President Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Welcome, Professor John DeBerry.

Thanks, Steve. It's great to be here.

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