A nose for trouble

Scientists hope research into how hammerhead sharks sniff out their prey will influence design for chemical sensors for counter-terrorism, underwater exploration and medicine.

Jonathan Cox, a lecturer in the department of chemistry at the University of Bath, has been working with researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum to test a model of the shark's unusually shaped head in a tank to see how water flows around the nasal cavity.

The researchers made the model from a CT scan of a shark's head.