I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium a while back and we happened to watch a short presentation while we there. I was debating if I wanted to watch it or not, but the subject was right up my alley and I decided since we were there we should just watch it. I'm glad I did. It was essentially about biomimicry. The two major things that stood out to me were, surprise surprise, aerodynamic principles certain animals exhibit that go against our thinking, but have been proven to provide less drag, more lift, etc.
The first one was the 'tubercules' on a Humpback whale's fins. 'Human thinking' dictates that the fin or wing (say an airplane) should be a fine leading edge, to reduce drag as much as possible. But the tubercules of a Humpback whale actually reduce drag by as much as 1/3. My question is in layman's terms why this happens and how this could help a car (maybe an air dam with tubercules on them)?
Here is what I am talking about
:
Here is my idea for a car (in an extreme situation - an F1 car):
Please excuse the terrible Photoshop (well, Paint), but you get the idea.
Some info:
Humpback Whale Case Study