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Flying Snake Mysteries Revealed

Posted by timothy on from the why-your-attic-sounds-like-slithering dept.

Rambo Tribble writes "Researchers from Virginia Tech are reporting they have uncovered the secrets behind the genus Chrysopelea's aerodynamic feats . These ophidians are capable of gliding some distance while appearing to slither through the air. The BBC's article on the revelations hosts a short video of the phenomenon. At the heart of Chrysopelea's feat is a remarkable ability of the snakes to alter their body's cross-section. Finally, snakes that don't need to be on no stinking plane." The paper [PDF] has some more cool pictures, too.

3 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Herodotus' History by oldhack · · Score: 5, Informative

    Herodotus in his History mentioned flying snakes in Arabia/Egypt. Many considered it one of the more fanciful tales in that work.

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    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  2. Re:Paper has some cool pictures? by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What has /. turned into? Discovery Kids?

    All geeks are kids at heart.

    Where once we openly drooled at the view through the candy store window, we now drool at the view through the gadget store window (or web site).

    We also still like to see what makes things tick.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  3. Re:Paper has some cool pictures? by TheloniousToady · · Score: 4, Funny

    Like it or not, pictures are still a more efficient way of communicating data than text. By an order of magnitude.

    You've lost me on that...can you show me a graph?