Darwin Parties in His Grave; Insect Evolves GEARS IN LEGS; World Panics, Economy Crumbles - Polidicks

[Quote]With two diminutive legs locked into a leap-ready position, the tiny jumper bends its body taut like an archer drawing a bow. At the top of its legs, a minuscule pair of gears engage—their strange, shark-fin teeth interlocking cleanly like a zipper. And then, faster than you can blink, think, or see with the naked eye, the entire thing is gone. In 2 milliseconds it has bulleted skyward, accelerating at nearly 400 g's—a rate more than 20 times what a human body can withstand. At top speed the jumper breaks 8 mph—quite a feat considering its body is less than one-tenth of an inch long. [/quote] [url]http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/the-first-gear-discovered-in-nature-15916433?click=pm_latest[/url]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FVy0n89.gif[/img] Holy shit (image taken from article)

Today, a gear. Tomorrow, entire robots

[QUOTE=Steven :D;42169046][img]http://i.imgur.com/FVy0n89.gif[/img] Holy shit (image taken from article)[/QUOTE] That thing is so fucking cute.

Animals are just living machines after all.

[video=youtube;sNw5FwNd4GU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNw5FwNd4GU[/video]

How it works: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/QXZYuHS.jpg[/IMG] From [url]http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/12/this-insect-has-gears-in-its-legs/[/url]

[QUOTE=Steven :D;42169046][img]http://i.imgur.com/FVy0n89.gif[/img] Holy shit (image taken from article)[/QUOTE]17 seconds in and it becomes relevant. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8awqKPvdKk[/media]

That is fucking incredible. Imagine the number of iterations it must have taken until an individual was conceived with perfectly interlocking gear teeth.

[img]http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/ba/Issus-02-0913-de.jpg[/img] I have been sitting with my mouth gaping for the past minute, looking at this. FUCKING AWESOME.

What in the holy hell?

The OP makes it sound like they were observed to evolve this in a lab. This instead just another species discovered out of the many thousands that exist. [quote] Their idea: If one of the gear teeth were to slip and break in an adult (the researchers observed this in adolescent bugs), its jumping ability would be hindered forever. With no more molts, it would have no chance to grow more gears. And with every bound, "the whole system might slip, accelerating damage to the rest of the gear teeth," Sutton says. "Just like if your car has a gear train missing a tooth. Every time you get to that missing tooth, the gear train jerks." [/quote] That would require at least 2 evolutionary steps, and it doesn't state that it was observed. This is really fucking cool though none the less.

Life always finds a way... Evolutions solves an immense array of problems....

New tyranid bio-construct.

[QUOTE=Stopper;42169144][img]http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/ba/Issus-02-0913-de.jpg[/img] I have been sitting with my mouth gaping for the past minute, looking at this. FUCKING AWESOME.[/QUOTE] Oh wow, that's pretty interesting

I'm actually surprised that this manner of mechanism EVOLVED; sheer luck of the draw through generations of mutations. A mechanism thought to be found nowhere in nature, turning out to be an actual thing in nature. We need to study the genes on that thing; imagine the biomachines one could grow with the gear-leg genes...

[QUOTE=Steven :D;42169046][img]http://i.imgur.com/FVy0n89.gif[/img] Holy shit (image taken from article)[/QUOTE] I MUST GO, MY PEOPLE NEED ME. [editline]12th September 2013[/editline] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kocYnkuUH7c[/media] relevant

Meh, we made gears first, keep up mother nature

I love threads with titles like this.

[QUOTE=Tomthetechy;42169685]I love threads with titles like this.[/QUOTE] I know I'll never beat smurfy, the irrefutable title king, but I do my best.

[t]http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7554439/Abathur-advises-Kerrigan-on-new-mutations-and-evolutions-to-strengthen-the-swarm.jpg[/t] Recent mutation produced gears in hind legs. Can jump great distance, for size. Very efficient. Can still improve.