The First Mechanical Gear Found in a Living Creature
The Issus Nymph, part of the Issus genus a group small flightless bug living on phloem, phloem is the living tissue found in plant stems that carries organic nutrients, and is classified as a nymph which consists of insects that undergo a gradual metamorphosis and never enters a pupal stage. The Issus Nymph has tiny interlocking teeth that help to propel it when it jumps at very high speeds. In two milliseconds the Issus Nymph has rocketed skywards accelerating at near to 400 g's, a rate that is more than 20 times the force that a human a withstand . It travels at a speed of 8 miles per hour which is very impressive considering that its body is less than a tenth of an inch. Therefore the Issus once dissected you can find the innards of this insect sort of seat-belted to their exoskeleton. The miniature insect is a adolescent Issus that is a plant-hopper insect that is one of the fastest accelerating organisms. "Jumping is one of the most rapid and powerful things an animal can do" says Malcolm Burrows, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge and the lead author of the paper, "and that leads to all sorts of crazy specializations." The researchers are lead to believe that the Issus Nymph which lives chiefly on European climbing ivy evolved the their gear mechanisms through needing to flee precarious situations. Although they are not sure what exactly what the Issus Nymph was jumping from to evolve the mechanical gear, they could be jumping from paralyzing wasps, birds, or even careless animals eating plants that they are on. The matter of fact however is constant need to be faster and faster to survive and the Issus Nymph is making an interesting step forward in the race.
As an animal wants to jump, both legs need to move simultaneously, so that you don's spiral uncontrollably out of control. Most animals use their nervous system to keep their legs in sync when pushing off to jump. But for the Issus, their legs actually can out-speed their nervous systems. By the time the Issus has sent a signal from its legs to its brain and back, which take about 5 or 6 milliseconds, the jump has already been engaged. Instead, the gears, which engage before the jump, let the Issus Nymph lock its legs together synchronizing their movements to a precision of 1/300,000 of a second. The gear that is found in the legs of the Issus is interesting in itself its not like a regular gear that you would find, it has crescent shaped teeth that are a unique design not seen normally. However the interesting thing is that the gear is not found in the final metamorphosis, this is believed to be in case one of the teeth were to be broken off the jumping ability of the Issus Nymph wouldn't been permanently hindered.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/the-first-gear-discovered-in-nature-15916433?click=pm_latest
As an animal wants to jump, both legs need to move simultaneously, so that you don's spiral uncontrollably out of control. Most animals use their nervous system to keep their legs in sync when pushing off to jump. But for the Issus, their legs actually can out-speed their nervous systems. By the time the Issus has sent a signal from its legs to its brain and back, which take about 5 or 6 milliseconds, the jump has already been engaged. Instead, the gears, which engage before the jump, let the Issus Nymph lock its legs together synchronizing their movements to a precision of 1/300,000 of a second. The gear that is found in the legs of the Issus is interesting in itself its not like a regular gear that you would find, it has crescent shaped teeth that are a unique design not seen normally. However the interesting thing is that the gear is not found in the final metamorphosis, this is believed to be in case one of the teeth were to be broken off the jumping ability of the Issus Nymph wouldn't been permanently hindered.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/the-first-gear-discovered-in-nature-15916433?click=pm_latest
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