Lobster Memes

Engineers and scientists spending thousands of compute hours to simulate the fluid dynamics around a lobster that absolutely no one asked for is peak research energy. The colorful computational fluid dynamics visualization shows how air would flow around a lobster if it were... flying? Swimming through air? The absurdity lies in the hyper-specialized nature of this analysis—like someone defended a PhD thesis on "Crustacean Aeronautics" with a straight face. Next up: calculating the lift coefficient of a burrito.

Car enthusiasts in the 80s: "Flames make my car faster!" Engineers who actually studied fluid dynamics: "According to our computational models, a lobster-shaped vehicle exhibits superior aerodynamic properties." The bottom image shows actual CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis of a lobster's shape, which is surprisingly streamlined. Nature spent millions of years perfecting designs we're just now discovering with supercomputers. Next time you're building a race car, consider the humble crustacean.