Recasting the whale’s wonderful net.

The article discusses a study by M. A. Lillie et al which investigated how specialized vascular networks provide protection for the brains of dolphin and whales against injury. Topics include an unusual physiological challenge faced by the animals in terms of managing the delivery of oxygenated blood to their brain and the role of thoracic and spino-cranial retia complex in tempering pulsatile swings in arterial and venous blood pressures in the brain as cetaceans exercise while breath-holding.