
Functioning ‘mechanical gears’ seen in nature (2013) - coloneltcb
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/functioning-mechanical-gears-seen-in-nature-for-the-first-time
======
louprado
This video involving insects and children made me reflect on my childhood
passion and the day it ended.

Like most children, I loved insects. In 2nd grade I wrote a poem about insects
that so impressed my teacher that I was promoted from the “slow” 2nd grade
class to the “advanced” 2nd grade class. It’s my first memory of experiencing
pride.

But I didn’t actually _love_ insects, I _loved_ studying them. To the young
mind these are just animated toys which you could freely disassemble and
experiment.

When I was around 9, I recall taking my collection of insects and using my
saliva as to perform a pre-selection test to determine which insects in the
collection could potentially be amphibious. The next step was to take the ones
that performed well and increase the severity of the experiment in hopes of
discovering an amphibious insect.

My father was in our yard at the time and, for some reason, I paused to ask,
“is it OK if I kill these bugs”. To which he replied “you can kill them, but
don’t let them suffer”. I don’t recall if I proceeded with my full water
immersion experiment. But I do recall the use of the word “suffer” had
implications that would soon end all my research. _Kill_ is used
metaphorically in mechanical systems, you “kill” an engine, but it comes back
to life later. But there is no creative interpretation of the word suffer.

Years later I had the similar experience my first year in EE grad school. I
wanted to research/improve cochlear implants as aiding the disabled is a noble
pursuit of study. But then I went to meet a friend of mine, a PhD candidate,
in the lab, he was literally eating a sandwich, talking to me, while operating
on auditory system of a chinchilla. Maybe it was a cadaver, it was a really
healthy-looking one if it was and I didn’t ask. I just wanted to leave so he
could focus on his patient and so that I could reconsider what else I could
study.

To be clear, my comment is not a criticism of biological research and I am
grateful for the resulting knowledge and benefits. It is Sunday morning and I
just felt compelled to write.

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DrScump
_Issus_ was included in a recent episode of "Nature" on PBS:

[http://www.pbs.org/video/natures-miniature-
miracles-c7il7p/](http://www.pbs.org/video/natures-miniature-miracles-c7il7p/)

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tofuFarmer
This is almost as impressive as the Pistol Shrimp who uses a sonic weapon to
incapacitate it's prey:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6I8iPiHT8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6I8iPiHT8)

Or for that matter the much more commonly known electric eel.

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inspector-g
While not quite a gear structure in the strictest sense, don't forget about
the amazing flagellar motor[1] in bacteria!

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum#Motor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum#Motor)

~~~
devenson
I was amazed when I first learned of this, finally finding something like an
axle and wheel in a living organism.

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randomdrake
Study: Interacting Gears Synchronize Propulsive Leg Movements in a Jumping
Insect

Citation: Malcolm Burrows, Gregory Sutton. Science. 13 Sep 2013: Vol. 341,
Issue 6151, pp. 1254-1256.

Link:
[https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1240284](https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1240284)

DOI: 10.1126/science.1240284

Abstract: Gears are found rarely in animals and have never been reported to
intermesh and rotate functionally like mechanical gears. We now demonstrate
functional gears in the ballistic jumping movements of the flightless
planthopper insect Issus. The nymphs, but not adults, have a row of cuticular
gear (cog) teeth around the curved medial surfaces of their two hindleg
trochantera. The gear teeth on one trochanter engaged with and sequentially
moved past those on the other trochanter during the preparatory cocking and
the propulsive phases of jumping. Close registration between the gears ensured
that both hindlegs moved at the same angular velocities to propel the body
without yaw rotation. At the final molt to adulthood, this synchronization
mechanism is jettisoned.

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bdz
That reminds me to the Oklo natural fission reactor

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor)

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pottspotts
This is very interesting. It is important to remember that "man-made" and
"natural" are on the same continuum. We are a part of nature, and vice-versa.
This discovery is stunning, but not surprising, given the other incredible
inventions by mother nature in the history of evolution.

~~~
stormking
On the one hand, you're right: Humans are a part of nature.

On the other hand, the definition of "natural" is "untouched by humans".

~~~
decorator
I heard someone use 'Nature' as untouched-by-humans. With the use of a
capital. They didn't give any rationale.

Maybe once Nature has been corrupted by humans it ceases to be such.

Woe is human -- with our ontological flagellation. (We grant the existence of
Nature only to turn it back on ourselves.)

~~~
SiempreViernes
Man, it’s just a useful label for something that occurs independently of human
presence. No need to break out the vogon poetry for that.

~~~
decorator
Just looked up the Vogons. From Wikipedia:

> Vogon poetry is described as "the third worst poetry in the Universe"

That's quite a good insult, really. Well, if what I had done was poetry. So a
good insult in a different situation.

~~~
DonHopkins
Vogons are perfectly capable of corrupting Nature without the help of humans.
And even restoring Nature by wiping out humans to make way for a hyperspace
bypass.

At least he didn't say it was bad as Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings's poetry
about decaying swans.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/poetry.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/poetry.shtml)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPeIiU2kx4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPeIiU2kx4)

Or the Electronic Bard's horrible poems:

[http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/lem/HorriblePoems.html](http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/lem/HorriblePoems.html)

Despair not, never give up, and just keep practicing: there's always room for
improvement:

[http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/lem/WonderfulPoems.html](http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/lem/WonderfulPoems.html)

~~~
decorator
> Despair not, never give up, and just keep practicing: there's always room
> for improvement

There's nought to improve. It wasn't poetry. & if you-all are suggesting my
prose is poetic, then that's a compliment, not a zing.

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agumonkey
Another not man made thing. I have to say I'm surprised I thought it would be
to inefficient to grow something like this for an organism..

ps: that said, it seems hidden enough to keep a little bit of credit to our
ancestors brains I guess :)

------
aetherspawn
This was featured in the August 2015 Awake magazine [1] on the back cover. A
copy of the article is here [2].

[1] The Awake magazine is widely distributed for free by Jehovah’s Witnesses
as a religious evangelising work that is now banned in a few countries
including Russia.

[2]
[https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201508/issus-l...](https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201508/issus-
leafhopper/)

~~~
ComputerGuru
Ok, and this was published two years earlier in 2013. What’s the point?

~~~
aetherspawn
The point is, the mentioned magazine (and its sister) holds the world record
for 1st and 2nd most distributed magazine in the world as well as most widely
translated magazine. 41 million copies of this article was distributed in
hundreds of languages, so many people have already seen this.

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whyenot
This is not a new finding. The title needs a (2013) in it.

~~~
dang
Thanks. Added.

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alimw
This precedes Justin Bieber's video for "Where Are Ü Now" by a couple of
years.

~~~
alimw
Please no more downvotes by people who clearly haven't watched this film all
the way through, or who somehow avoided ever seeing Justin Bieber's.

~~~
majewsky
> Please no more downvotes when you cannot even understand how irrelevant this
> comment is.

FTFY

~~~
alimw
I was not warned that the entire second half of the film, about an art
project, would be considered off-topic.

~~~
majewsky
You also didn't explain why it was _on-topic_. If you respond to a science
article with a reference to a music artist which as far as I can see is
_entirely_ unrelated, without explaining what's going on, you shouldn't be
surprised about downvotes.

