"You can tell healthy from less-healthy hearts" by studying the vortices, Dr. Dabiri said.

WSJ: Jellyfish Hints at Fix for Damaged Hearts

High in its atmosphere, the winds race at hurricane pace, creating enormous vortices at the poles.

ECONOMIST: Planetary science

Vortices of dust whipped up by the wind have been pictured by previous Mars rovers.

BBC: Dust-devils flirt with Curiosity Mars rover

Heathrow Airport says only one in 10, 000 flights result in vortices which can cause damage to property.

BBC: Vortex from plane landing at Heathrow damages roof

The study of vortices already has inspired some new areas for medical research.

WSJ: Jellyfish Hints at Fix for Damaged Hearts

These garbage patches are vortices that form where two ocean currents meet, in effect a giant oceanic toilet that never flushes.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

For jellyfish, vortices propel it forward and push food toward its mouth.

WSJ: Jellyfish Hints at Fix for Damaged Hearts

The muscular contraction creates vortices doughnut-shaped rings of water below the creature's body.

WSJ: Jellyfish Hints at Fix for Damaged Hearts

The vortices in the heart can be measured with ultrasound.

WSJ: Jellyfish Hints at Fix for Damaged Hearts

In fact, the vortices were observed breaking themselves apart in a particular way, which will provide insights that could assist our understanding of turbulence, plasma physics, and even the general behaviour of fluids.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 3.9.13: Sunstones, knotted vortices and a zero-g robot