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First Gear Mechanism Discovered In Nature
GameboyRMH writes "A gear mechanism has been discovered [paywalled original paper here, for those with access] for the first time in nature in the nymph of the Issus, a small plant-hopping insect common in Europe. It uses the gears to synchronize the movement and power of its hind legs, forcing the legs to propel it in a straight line when jumping, which would otherwise be impossible for the insect if it had to control the timing and force of its leg muscles independently."
Our contraptions have 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and sometimes higher.
Who knows, maybe next we'll evolve gears to help us reach those things on the top shelf better...
One of the original origin stories for the Transformers was that they evolved from naturally occurring pulleys and gears. IIRC it was used in the comics, until they retconned it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I don't think you are jumping the sort of distances (relative to your size) that this insect is. The power of the jump compared to its mass is quite impressive, and apparently has special requirements. From the linked article:
" The gear teeth on the opposing hind-legs lock together like those in a car gear-box, ensuring almost complete synchronicity in leg movement - the legs always move within 30 'microseconds' of each other, with one microsecond equal to a millionth of a second.
This is critical for the powerful jumps that are this insect's primary mode of transport, as even minuscule discrepancies in synchronization between the velocities of its legs at the point of propulsion would result in "yaw rotation" - causing the Issus to spin hopelessly out of control."
William George
If you look at the picture of the thing, it's pretty amazing. Each gear strip is 400 micrometers long.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The Synopsis was a little lacking in detail. Namely, the gear configuration for the legs on this adolescent insect allowed it to jump faster and further than it would normally be able to do safely. Through use of the gear configuration, it allowed the adolescent insect to develop it's nervous system to adapt to acceleration to 400g while it's muscular structure and carapace developed, at which point the years are shed. Basically, these are training wheels, not that they are inherently better. What is interesting is that the gear design is quite different than what we humans have created, and allows for highly effective forward momentum with minimal energy expenditure at the expense of reverse.
Thirty four characters live here.
Extra credit for the article to put 'microseconds' in quotes! And then explain what it means. Whoa, so we can introduce entire generations in science who have not mastered difficult concepts like 'zero' before (http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1997-02-27/).
You're joking right? I could see quite easily how a gear mechanism could have evolved from a simple pair of spurs.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You can read the paper's full text here: http://freepdfhosting.com/292b7f1c8f.pdf Some highlights: On page 2, there are some great images of the gears in action. Do check them out! Your friend, pdfbuddy.
Have you never seen a cricket or grasshopper?
Yes. They have stabilizers. This little bug doesn't, thus needs more accurate jumping.
Learn to love Alaska
I thought about quoting the relevant part of TFA on this in the summary, but didn't....what a mistake.
Anyway you can read it to find out why you're wrong in the case of this insect.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Some open minds that folks have here...
Not open enough for our brains to fall out.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
..and here is a video of the gears in action.
"His name was James Damore."
Wow, congratulations, you proved all etymologists wrong with three seconds of thought.
Etymologists?
Everything is better with chainsaws.
Then take the creature as a whole. Even such a tiny insect is absolutely as complex as a car! For that matter, every *cell* in that insect is as complex as a car - at least the mechanical components (excepting for the point of this discussion the onboard electronics / computer systems).
Oh, and at least I have the decency to avoid name calling and use of expletives... and in fact, to use my real name on comments which may be unpopular. I'm not afraid of what I believe, and I know that it is extremely unpopular on sites like this - but the truth will win out in the end (even if it is long after we are both dead).
William George
To me, this level of detail in nature is strong evidence for creation rather than evolution.
I suspect that Creationists would say the same thing about any complex biological structure. Interlocking gears are interesting because human beings manufacture similar structures, but there's nothing about them that's more miraculous than, say, a retina.
And if biologists can find fossils with more-primitive gear structures as we go back in time -- fewer teeth, less-effective interlocking, etc. -- that would actually support evolution even more, by demonstrating that it is able to produce interesting machines by gradual (and occasionally stark) mutation.
Of course, I doubt that most Creationists can ever be swayed from their opinions, no matter what scientific evidence is presented, because evidence for evolution in the fossil record is already overwhelming and yet there are still Creationists. That's the power of religion.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
If you found a car on another planet, where humans had never been, would you assume it evolved there?
If the materials were unrelated to any other naturally occurring material, as is a regular car (steel is not naturally occurring, nor is plastic or paint), then it would seem to be manufactured, not evolved. If you see a burn mark in a piece of toast that looks like Jesus, do you assume God put it there, or that in millions of pieces of toast cooked per day, some burns will bear some resemblance to other objects?
Learn to love Alaska
Somebody photoshop a top hat, goggles and pocketwatch for the first steampunk insect! http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/056/820/i02/planthopper-insect-leg-gears.jpg?1379008166
Since some shrimp use cavitation to attack, and some bugs use timing gears to jump, seems like a good idea to watch little things more closely. We might just see something we missed.
Next up: a bug that has Linux. (Not just Linux that has bugs)
Table-ized A.I.
Then take the creature as a whole. Even such a tiny insect is absolutely as complex as a car! For that matter, every *cell* in that insect is as complex as a car - at least the mechanical components (excepting for the point of this discussion the onboard electronics / computer systems).
Oh, and at least I have the decency to avoid name calling and use of expletives... and in fact, to use my real name on comments which may be unpopular. I'm not afraid of what I believe, and I know that it is extremely unpopular on sites like this - but the truth will win out in the end (even if it is long after we are both dead).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwew5gHoh3E
If we are of divinely micromanaged origin, the divine is a slacker who takes horrible shortcuts. What are tonsils for? The Appendix? The tail we have in the womb? These are rhetorical questions. Real scientists, who rely on empirical evidence to support theory, vs. theoretical evidence to support faith, understand that following:
1) The world is flat is a false statement.
2) The world is a sphere flat is a false statement.
But the people who don't understand that #2 is LESS wrong than #1 are willful idiots.
If ylur want to believe that there is a god that kicked off the Big Bang and let it go from there, that's fine. But as soon as "He" interferes in the empirically measurable world, there goes free will and self-determination. Anyone who goes to hell is damned by their creator with no hope of redemption, as they wer created wrong. I say F that creator myth.
Or is it like the Babel fish in HHG? Proof of the opposite?
Quote:
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and therefore, by your own arguments,
you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
End Quote
What you are proposing is inherintly anti science. Instead of trying to figurout why things the way they are, you would have us just accept that they are. Not only is it creationism bad science, but also lazy theology.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Some of these research articles of late seem to have no respect for the basics of nature that the layman seems to have been taking for granted since the beginning.
If you're going to whine about an article, at least read it. The gears help it react faster than any sort of nerve impulse could.
And they also suggest at the end that the reason larva have gears but not adults is because larva molt.
They theorize that adults do not have gears because any sort of fracture is permanent and fractures seem likely over a period of sustained use.
There exists a Weevil with a screw as a leg joint.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonopterus_oblongus
Nature is absolutely awesome.
I'm confused, Are you suggesting that gods create cars, or that aliens create insects?
Or were you just stretching for a car analogy?
Let's take your car analogy and run with it. If I found a car on a planet full of self-replicating creatures that shared many features of the car, and even found very simple car components all over the place, as well as a underground record showing many iterations of creatures that eventually led to the car... then yeah, I would assume it evolved there.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Spouting unscientific nonsense in a crowd of nerds is, by definition, trolling.
synchronize their cilia? I have watched them under stroboscopic illumination and there are wave-like patterns in the motion, similar to what you see when a centipede runs across the floor. Paramecia are single celled and have no nerves, no muscles. How do they synchronize the motion of those hundreds (or thousands) of cilia? Is it simply cascading chemical reactions?
As I understand it, the appendix is also part of the immune system. It is a storehouse for intestinal flora: bacteria that aid in digestion. If you get a diahretic disease that flushes out your colon, your digestive flora are repopulated from the appendix.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/bombardier.html
"how can it evolve? it will blow up if it doesn't get it just right!"
we should all realize that, unfortunately, creationists will immediately alight upon these gears as "intelligent design" and disproof of evolution
"how can it evolve? if the gears don't mesh, it doesn't move!"
you can't argue with the dull and intellectually dishonest
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it