Posted on 04/04/2006 11:59:23 AM PDT by Sopater
When Stephen Yanoviak visited the jungles of Panama in 1998 to study how ants forage, he found himself with some unexpected downtime. "Out of boredom, I started flicking some ants off of a tree," he said.
And he saw something extraordinary. Some of the ants fell straight, but others swerved at near-right angles and landed on tree trunks feet from the ground.
Dr. Yanoviak, a University of Florida entomologist, forgot about the bizarre insect gliders until several years later, when he was assaulted by the same ant species, Cephalotes atratus, during a mosquito-collecting trip to the Peruvian rainforest.
"I was sitting on a branch and they were crawling all over me, so I tried to push them off," he said. "They fell, but immediately turned around and glided right back to the tree trunk. That's when I realized this was something worth investigating."
After returning from his trip, Dr. Yanoviak mentioned the gliding ant sighting to his colleague Robert Dudley, an animal flight expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "I thought it was the most exciting thing I'd ever heard," Dr. Dudley said, and he decided to join Dr. Yanoviak in exploring this uncharted biological territory. Since then, their research has shed light on the airborne survival strategies many wingless insect species have, and on the question of how insect flight originated.
With the entomologist Michael Kaspari of the University of Oklahoma, the two took video of the ants' descents, looking for clues about how their structure and movements enabled complex aerial maneuvers.
The ants' hang time was impressive not because their bodies were particularly aerodynamic, but because they knew how to move their long limbs around to reduce drag. They moved their left hind legs outward and rotated them, an off-kilter motion that allowed them to maintain altitude.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
it's THEM
Can pigs us the same technique to fly?
Only one way to find out.
Pig tossing contest tonight at the big tree.
Ham bam thank you, ma'am.
There is a fallacy in the theory. The phenomenon is the thought that aerodynamics is involved. It is not.
The swerving to the tree trunk is purely mental. The ants will themselves toward the tree.
remember the rubber tree plant.
Use the Force, Fluke!
Your movies are great -
I have "Away All Boats" as part of my 16mm film collection
I also have "THEM"
nothing like an outdoor movie party, except maybe a pig toss.
Where we experiment to learn the laws of hamodynamics.
After all evolution means that a more evolved being should survive better. and while a pig has no more letters than an ant, it hasn't prevented them from becoming politicians.
"I thought it was the most exciting thing I'd ever heard," Dr. Dudley said"
And I thought I had a boring life!
If wingless gliders can fly, why would they need wings? This stuff passes for science?
Perhaps a dictionary would help you distinguish gliding from flying.
Entomologists are a peculiar bunch. Another entomologist once did an experiment on cockroaches, aimed at determining whether they were capable of actual "learning". Put them on a special strip which could deliver an electric shock to their front legs only. Did a few rounds of sending a warning vibration followed quickly by a shock. The shocks caused the roaches to raise their front legs off the strip. Soon the the roaches "learned" to raise their front legs when they felt the vibration, and avoid the shock. Then the entomologist had an idea: decapitate them and see if they still do this. Yup, the row of headless roaches heeded the warning vibrations and raised their front legs. I worry a little about people who understand the minds of cockroaches this well.
THEM: Greatest giant irradiated mutant insect film ever made. Seriously.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
}:-)4
Agreed.
Saw it in a theater when I was eight years old. Except for the parts I saw from the lobby.
Them is a classic movie, and the only commercial film ever to depict the XB-35 "Flying Wing" US bomber. It was used in that film towards the end, and is the reason I own a copy.
Ummmm, wasn't that the 1953 version of War of the Worlds?
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