View larger Version | In a 1976 lecture, the physicist E.M. Purcell illustrated how swimmers must contend with different forces at different scales. His doodles included, from left, comparing Reynolds numbers for a human, fish and microbe; showing how to calculate a Reynolds number; and examples of body designs and swimming maneuvers that microbes use to move through viscous fluids. Credit: E.M. Purcell/American J. of Physics 41 (1) 311, copyright American Institute of Physics

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