Air cushions can lift a forty-ton whale without breaking bones
Animals
When a whale beaches, its own massive weight can crush its internal organs. Rescuers are now using a gentle physics trick to simulate the buoyancy of the deep ocean.
A stranded whale is a tragic paradox: the very gravity that holds it to the earth is a death sentence. Without the support of seawater, a forty-ton whale can suffer spinal fractures or crushed lungs under the sheer pressure of its own blubber. German rescue teams tackle this by sliding custom-made air cushions beneath the animal. These bags exert a precise pressure that mimics the upward push of the tide, distributing the weight so evenly that the whale's delicate bones remain intact.