11–20 of 42 posts
It seems to me there is still so much to learn from nature. Something that is impressive to me is how insects manage energy, tiny things moving or flying around and processing information for hours with I don't know what source and storage for it. I am obviously a total ignorant in physics and biology.
Immediately stopped reading & flagged this after the “enter your email address to keep reading” dark pattern pop up appeared. Nothing will ever change if we keep rewarding this kind of behavior.
I wonder if it’s possible for a creature to have axles and some kind of differential?
The "gears" on this insect are basically intersecting teeth on two otherwise normal leg parts. Evolving an axle or any other free spinning part would require disconnected parts. The external parts would be cut off from any metabolic functions of the main body. Nothing remotely like that has ever evolved before so it would be nigh impossible.
I wonder if it’s possible for a creature to have axles and some kind of differential?
This is video is really aimed at kids but gives some good explanation of why it's likely impossible: https://youtu.be/YkS1U5lfSRw The "gears" on this insect are basically intersecting teeth on two otherwise normal leg parts. Evolving an axle or any other free spinning part would require disconnected parts. The external parts would be cut off from any metabolic functions of the main body. Nothing remotely like that ha…
Colonial animals are the edge case here. Most would be hesitant to say an ant colony is "an animal", but are happy to refer to a Portuguese Man 'o' War as such, despite also being a colony.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is video is really aimed at kids but gives some good explanation of why it's likely impossible: https://youtu.be/YkS1U5lfSRw The "gears" on this insect are basically intersecting teeth on two otherwise normal leg parts. Evolving an axle or any other free spinning part would require disconnected parts. The external parts would be cut off from any metabolic functions of the main body. Nothing remotely like that ha…
It seems to me this "impossibility" might be an artifact of definition: if some system contains disjoint parts, we no longer call it "an animal". Colonial animals are the edge case here. Most would be hesitant to say an ant colony is "an animal", but are happy to refer to a Portuguese Man 'o' War as such, despite also being a colony.
Man o Wars are also not disjoint. They have specialized cells, but I believe share nutrition among the non-feeding cells. A truly disjoint creature would need a metabolic system on both sides of the disjoint, a separate nervous system, and perhaps most difficult, a way to pass messages across the disjoint quickly enough to be useful (aka electric impulse).
At a certain point, I think it starts becoming dubious whether it's a single creature. Even if they're genetically identical, they start to look more like twins than a colonial creature.
It seems to me there is still so much to learn from nature. Something that is impressive to me is how insects manage energy, tiny things moving or flying around and processing information for hours with I don't know what source and storage for it. I am obviously a total ignorant in physics and biology.
It seems to me there is still so much to learn from nature. Something that is impressive to me is how insects manage energy, tiny things moving or flying around and processing information for hours with I don't know what source and storage for it. I am obviously a total ignorant in physics and biology.
ATP synthase. It is a protein that has a stator like in a motor that rotates in phases when it combines ADP and phosphate to make ATP. Amazing.
It seems to me there is still so much to learn from nature. Something that is impressive to me is how insects manage energy, tiny things moving or flying around and processing information for hours with I don't know what source and storage for it. I am obviously a total ignorant in physics and biology.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curl-up [1]: https://www.instructables.com/Articulated-MC-Escher-Curl-up-...
This is very cool, helps the young bugs coordinate both legs for jumping before letting them lose the bumps and graduate to precision jumping.