

Functional mechanical gear discovered in nature (2013) - cwal37
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-insect-has-the-only-mechanical-gears-ever-found-in-nature-6480908/?no-ist

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cwal37
And here's the paper describing their findings:

[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6151/1254](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6151/1254)

Of course as soon as I submit I think of a better title, mechanical-style gear
is probably more appropriate.

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jtheory
It's odd -- I'd swear I've read about a gear-like mechanism found in an insect
years ago, but I can't find any references now... of course Google is flooded
with a million articles rehashing this single news story claiming to be the
first.

It may just be that late 2013 feels farther than it is, and I'm remembering
this news from then.

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kingkawn
ATPase is gear-like and present in all living things (to the best of my
knowledge):
[http://www.psc.edu/science/schulten2004.html](http://www.psc.edu/science/schulten2004.html)

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teddyh
This is only a story for those who ascribe some special property to a
mechanical gear.

~~~
scott_s
Finding things that we have never observed before tends to be its own kind of
special property.

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kazinator
I guess some people won't be impressed until a bug is found featuring a manual
transmission with five fully meshed forward gears, sliding reverse, and
synchronizers.

~~~
teddyh
Simple question: Why is this a story and not many of the myriad of other
clever biochemical solutions found in nature? I can only come to the
conclusion I have already stated: Some people ascribe something special to
mechanical constructs and consider them to be in some way non-natural.

~~~
kazinator
Let me take a wild stab at what might underlie the fascination.

Yes; it relates to the question of what kind of stuff can be encoded in
nature's DNA, plus the mechanism that turns genotype into phenotype. Can it
generate a wheel on an axle? A ball bearing?

Mechanical constructs are non-natural because they have precise shapes which
have to be developed on a macroscopic scale, and some of those shapes have to
be detached (rotating parts versus stationary).

There are constructs that come close: bones and joints. We see some perfect
balls and discs in these, plus complex surfaces that articulate together
tightly.

Biochemical solutions are interesting, but less so because things are not
alive at those scales. The joint between two bones is not only a mechanical
structures, but it's living tissue. It has to be supplied with nutrients and
so on.

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teddyh
Previously submitted to HN here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6376191](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6376191)

~~~
dang
Thanks.

