The evolution of bats, even with ever-emerging research and fossil records, remains a mysterious one. Most evolution scientists agree that bats must have evolved from mammals, but unfortunately they can not find strong enough evidence as to which common ancestor bats splintered off from. Scientists now theorize that bats, the only mammal known to have […]
Before the age of the internet, computer games, and gaming consoles, kids would play outdoors. When I lived in China as a child, I remember trying to catch dragonflies with my friends; it was impossibly difficult. We would run around in the fields and spend hours in vain trying to catch these elusive insects. As […]
Have you ever watched Harry Potter and thought to yourself, is it really possible to deliver messages by attaching a message to an owl? You bet it is! Except not the owl part. Pigeon posts, believe it or not, have been in use for over 3,000 years, beginning with the Egyptians and Persians and are […]
We have all heard the infamous story from Exodus in the Bible were the Egyptians suffered ten plagues, each deadlier than the last. The eighth plague condemned to them was a swarm of locust so large that it prevented the Sun’s rays from passing through. Yet today many questions arise concerning swarms, not only of […]
The archaeopteryx was long considered to be the transitional form the between reptiles and birds—the evolutionary link between non-avian dinosaurs and birds. First discovered in 1861 immediately after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, this ancient species—about 150 million years old—had teeth, a flat sternum, a long, bony tail, gastralia, and three […]
Birds and flying insects in nature come in different sizes and shapes. We know that there exists minimum and maximum sizes for flight, but what makes a bird or an airplane an efficient flyer? Is there a wing that is perfect for all tasks? Can we borrow some ideas from nature to improve our aircraft?