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Insect Has Gears in Its Legs (2013)

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Insect Has Gears in Its Legs (2013)

#21

Post by chmod775 »

csomar wrote: post #18
melenaboija wrote: post #6

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.

Actually it's the human bodies that are quite wasteful (so are humans themselves). Many big animals can keep going without food for months. And it's not just their oily fat reserves, they are much more efficient with energy.

Humans are just better at other things. Like problem solving. A big brain takes a lot of energy.

Plus human bodies aren't all that terrible: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Persistence_hunting

Re: Insect Has Gears in Its Legs (2013)

#22

Post by Klinky »

csomar wrote: post #18
melenaboija wrote: post #6

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.

Actually it's the human bodies that are quite wasteful (so are humans themselves). Many big animals can keep going without food for months. And it's not just their oily fat reserves, they are much more efficient with energy.

The human body is good at being flexible and adapting to a wide variety of environments. You see it in a lot of areas of life, rigid efficiencies and flexible inefficiencies. Being more flexible has its costs and benefits. Humans are very much "jack of all trades, master of none".

Re: Insect Has Gears in Its Legs (2013)

#26

Post by Tossito190 »

tootie wrote: post #13
xwdv wrote: post #8

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…

Human teeth, hair. There's plenty of possibilities there. Especially with keratin. Nails are plenty robust. The real question is how do you motivate those disconnected components to perform work efficiently, but with gears like those in the OP you could hypothetically build a ratcheting system.

Re: Insect Has Gears in Its Legs (2013)

#27

Post by wallacoloo »

surround wrote: post #9

The article requires you to enter an email address to continue reading. Submitting a fake address works just fine.

Just use your browser’s “reader mode”. Seems to get around this style of popup pretty easily (at least on safari and usually Firefox too).

Re: Insect Has Gears in Its Legs (2013)

#30

Post by miked85 »

wallacoloo wrote: post #27
surround wrote: post #9

The article requires you to enter an email address to continue reading. Submitting a fake address works just fine.

Just use your browser’s “reader mode”. Seems to get around this style of popup pretty easily (at least on safari and usually Firefox too).

Normally I do that - in this case, pictures are useful though.
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