Shake Shake Shake!

There ain't nothing like a wet dog to douse you with water. Ol' Fido, when he's a shakin' and a shimmyin', can get you as wet as a spray from your garden hose. I'm sure most of us have experienced that thrill at one time or another.

That inborn technique is rather efficient too. A professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology actually studies canine (and other mammalian) tecniques for drying off. He's trying to come up with a mechanical means that does as good a job as the animals.

He's found that a washing machine's spin cycle has to go at it constantly for 10 minutes before it can remove an equivalent amount of water as a shaking dog does in a few seconds.

Doggies twist their spines about 30 degrees with each shake, but their loose skin turns that into 100 degrees in each direction. Centripetal force overcomes the water's surface tension, breaking it away from the fur.

So someday, when you buy a washing machine and put it to work for the first time, don't be surprised if it starts jerking around in a snapping motions. You can thank assistant professor David Hu for that.