Can Whales Improve Jet Fighters, Wind Turbines and Ceiling Fans?

Here's an interesting development, brought to us from whales:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/20379/

These days, if you watch some of these contemporary space sci-fi shows and movies, they'll often feature spaceships and other craft which have all kinds of exotic organic shapes, which seem mainly for artistic or aesthetic purposes.

But now it's been found that some kinds of organic shapes, such as the bumps on whale flippers, can actually significantly improve their fluid dynamics characteristics.

So who knows whether tomorrow's aircraft or windmills won't feature more of these organic shapes in the future. Phenomena like these might never have come to light without the detailed investigation into whales and their shape characteristics. This is why it's good that countries like India have science programs extending in all directions, as compared to our neighbors like Pak who only spend money on researching things they associate with power, like nukes.