Gears are a potent symbol of human industry, a sign of mechanical wonder or a cold assembly line. If you had to pick something to stand against the natural world, they’d be a pretty likely pick — except that as it turns out, insects discovered them first. In a paper published today in Science, Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton of the University of Cambridge reveal that the plant-hopping Issus coleoptratus leaps with the aid of a pair of tiny, one-way gears, the first functional ones ever found on an animal.
The gears aren’t connected all the time. One is located on each of the insect’s hind legs, and when it prepares to jump, the two sets of teeth lock together. As a result, the legs move in almost perfect unison, giving the insect more power as the gears rotate to their stopping point and then unlock.
via The Verge
