Topic description and stories

Gecko and ant

Why Spider-Man can’t exist: Geckos are ‘size limit’ for sticking to walls

18 Jan 2016

Latest research reveals why geckos are the largest animals able to scale smooth vertical walls – even larger climbers would require unmanageably...

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Left - micro-computed tomography image of a cockroach head showing the driving muscles of the left mandible; right - side view onto the experimental setup

Power up: cockroaches employ a “force boost” to chew through tough materials

11 Nov 2015

New research indicates that cockroaches use a combination of fast and slow twitch muscle fibres to give their mandibles a “force boost” that allows...

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Ant's foot showing a fluid trail

How the stick insect sticks (and unsticks) itself

07 Oct 2015

New research shows the fluid found on insects’ feet does not help them adhere to vertical and inverted surfaces, as previously thought, but may in...

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Female burying beetle with offspring.

Burying beetles: could being a good father send you to an early grave?

22 Sep 2015

New research shows beetles that received no care as larvae were less effective at raising a large brood as parents. Males paired with ‘low quality’...

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Left: cricket on a trackball during experiment. Right: Auditory neuron in cricket brain.

Neural circuit in the cricket brain detects the rhythm of the right mating call

11 Sep 2015

Delay mechanism within elegant brain circuit consisting of just five neurons means female crickets can automatically detect chirps of males from same...

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Dorsal view of adult Dixa BM, BL, median and lateral bands on the scutum

What's the point of midges - and how do you stop them biting?

26 Aug 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, M is for...

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The reproductive machinery of Drosophila melanogaster. Two ovaries (upper right) connected by the oviduct.

How close are you to a fruit fly?

08 Jul 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, F is for...

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A juvenile praying mantis

Baby mantises harness mid-air ‘spin’ during jumps for precision landings

05 Mar 2015

High-speed videos reveal that, unlike other jumping insects, the juvenile praying mantis does not spin out of control when airborne. In fact, it both...

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Cyphochilus beetle

The beetle’s white album

15 Aug 2014

The physical properties of the ultra-white scales on certain species of beetle could be used to make whiter paper, plastics and paints, while using...

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Stick insect

How stick insects honed friction to grip without sticking

19 Feb 2014

Scientists have discovered that, when upright, stick insects don’t stick. Instead, they deploy special hairy pads designed to create huge amounts of...

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Aphids

Crop-infecting virus forces aphids to spread disease

04 Dec 2013

Viruses alter plant biochemistry in order to manipulate visiting aphids into spreading infection

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Cog wheels connecting the hind legs of the plant hopper, Issus

Functioning ‘mechanical gears’ seen in nature for the first time

12 Sep 2013

Previously believed to be only man-made, a natural example of a functioning gear mechanism has been discovered in a common insect - showing that...

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