biomechanics

How Do Red And Giant Pandas Coexist? The Secret Is In Their Skulls.

Red pandas and giant pandas have more in common than simply being equally adorable and included on the IUCN Red List. They both eat bamboo and live in the same habitats. How do they coexist without competing over the same resources? The secret might be hidden in their skulls. Despite their English language labels, red…

Biology Jason G. Goldman Apr 10

Video reveals incredible “acrobat” and “hunter” birds in flight

Not all birds fly the same way. Hardly a revolutionary statement (you don’t need a firm grasp of biomechanics to recognize that a sparrow gets around differently than an albatross). But things get more interesting when you stop to examine the differences. In this fascinating video from Earth Unplugged, we examine the difference in flight…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 16

Incredible X-ray video captures a bat in flight

To better understand why bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight, a team of biologists at Brown University is examining ultra high-speed X-ray videos of fruit bats as they launch themselves into the air. Led by Nicolai Konow, the team used X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM), a technology that integrates 3D renderings…

io9 Lauren Davis Jul 7

These super slow-motion clips of birds flying are awesome

Stanford University researchers want to build better flying robots. In order to eventually do this, they are filming birds in flight (including hummingbirds) using an ultra-high-speed video camera. Some of the clips they’ve acquired are nothing short of amazing. As we’ve discussed before, scientists and engineers can learn to build faster, more agile robots by…

io9 Joseph Bennington-Castro Jul 5

We finally have an accurate measurement of a cheetah’s top speed

For years, the top speed of the world’s fastest land animal has been listed as 64 miles per hour – but that record is based on a single measurement, taken all the way back in the 1960s. So researchers flew to Botswana, where they outfitted wild cheetahs with motion- and acceleration-tracking collars. After measuring hundreds…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 12

Allosaurus Ate Like a Terrifying Two-Ton Falcon

Tyrannosaurus rex was a thrasher, prone to vigorously shaking its powerful, prey-packed jaws from side-to-side like a crocodile. But new simulations reveal Allosaurus was equipped to dismember its prey with a little more decorum, stripping flesh from bone not with the head-swinging motion of a croc, but the meticulous tug-tug-tug of a falcon. Top image…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 21

Holy crap, this ant’s jaws are like a freaking bear trap

Everyone, these are trap-jaw ants. The two featured here are fighting. Watch them closely – even in slow motion, the the spring-loaded snap of a trap-jaw’s maw is powerful enough to send both ants twirling in opposite directions in the blink of an eye. The video was created by ant guy Adrian Smith, and came…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 26

Could you outrun a Tyrannosaurus rex?

Just how quick was the great tyrant lizard, exactly? Experts in biomechanics think she was pretty damn quick – but still probably not as fast as you think. Researchers have been debating over the speed of dinosaurs – and T. rex, specifically – for years. Reconstructions of dinosaurs toward the end of the 19th century…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 5

Penguins teach humans to walk on ice without getting injured

Loving this little graphic from the folks at TABLET Infographics (see below for the full image). The penguin’s waddle is an age-old and oft-cited technique to avoid seriously injuring yourself while walking on ice, but be advised: moving like a penguin can be exhausting. Penguins are estimate to expend about twice as much metabolic energy…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 12

Watch this now. We bet you’ve never seen a more stunning video of a cheetah in your life.

This is the first ever high-definition, super-slow-motion video footage of sprinting cheetahs, which — I think we can all agree — are basically the reason high-frame-rate video cameras were invented. So stop it. Stop what you’re doing and watch this. Because this is more important. Says cinematographer Greg Wilson: Combining the resources of National Geographic…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Nov 27

Science settles some decades-old debates about the best way to swim

As we go into the final two days of Olympic swimming — the men’s open water 10k is today –- scientists are already telling swimmers how to improve their stroke for the next Olympic Games. Two different studies are reconsidering the biomechanics of swimmers’ pulls, a hotly debated topic among coaches and athletes. Top image:…

io9 Michael Ann Dobbs Aug 10

Robot dinosaurs are the future of paleontology

Since dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, there’s only so much we can really know about how these creatures moved and lived. But as two scientists explain to us, building robot dinosaurs could unlock the secrets hidden in fossils. This almost unspeakably awesome idea comes out of Drexel University. Paleontologist Dr. Kenneth Lacovara and…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 21

High-speed video reveals the surprising beauty of moth flight

If asked to describe a moth’s flight, I doubt many of us would use an adjective like “graceful.” Neurotic? Yes. Flap-happy? Absolutely. But years of watching moths careen headlong into patio lights and bug lamps have left most of us with a decidedly unremarkable impression of these bugs’ flying abilities. But after watching these slow-motion…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 1

Tyrannosaurus rex was much, much bigger than we thought

An international team of researchers has used three-dimensional laser scans to determine that Tyrannosaurus rex were likely 30% more massive that we once thought — and a whole lot hungrier. Be honest, now…how many of you woke up this morning thinking you’d hear the words “three-dimensional laser” and “Tyrannosaurus rex” used in the same sentence?…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 13

Scientists Discover Motherfcking Flying* Snakes

Snakes can fly and they don’t need a plane to do it. The freaky freaky beasts flatten their bodies and angle their heads so they glide through the air, which make them capable of flying from tree to tree. Virginia Tech’s biomechanist Jake Socha have discovered the mechanism, analyzing video frames and creating a computer…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Nov 24

Tongue chairs and fishmobiles

Ken Rinaldo shows us what happens when science meets art and goes nuts. Rinaldo specializes in art that has mixed biological and technological elements. One of his primary sources of inspiration are fish. He’s devised many ways for fish in bowls to get around. From small bowls that bring fighting fish close together, to larger…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 23

Toad Tongues Are a Key Ingredient in Robot Muscles

No longer will the word “robotic” refer to stiff, slow movements. We’ll soon have ‘bots that can pull a Miyagi and snatch a housefly out of the air with chopsticks, or, better yet, Robot Mixed Martial Arts Cage Matches! Robots are developing super-flexible physiologies thanks to current research into biomechanics, which suggest that artificial muscles…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Jun 3

Mars Astronauts Will Have Smooth Moves