A team of researchers at Seoul National University, led by Ho-Young Kim and Duck-Gyu Lee, has finally answered that question. By using a highly water-repellent sphere, which mimicked the actions of the water strider's highly water-repellent legs, they were able to determine a small range of speeds at which the sphere or insect could hit the water and not sink.
This does remind me of the cutting-edge technology developed in Britain say, oh, 65 years ago? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_bomb Good to know they've finally miniaturized it. =)
The insolation up around the Arctic circle is hardly enough to write home about half the year, and not nearly enough to power a large underground seed lair.
Additionally, there are large deposits of coal on the islands, so it's the cheapest, and most viable solution. One can but hope they'll make this fully automated once we start dying off and realize we'll need the vault post-apocalypse. =)
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This does remind me of the cutting-edge technology developed in Britain say, oh, 65 years ago? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_bomb
Good to know they've finally miniaturized it. =)
The insolation up around the Arctic circle is hardly enough to write home about half the year, and not nearly enough to power a large underground seed lair.
Additionally, there are large deposits of coal on the islands, so it's the cheapest, and most viable solution. One can but hope they'll make this fully automated once we start dying off and realize we'll need the vault post-apocalypse. =)