Japanese scientists have figured out how ladybugs fold their wings by transplanting a transparent artificial wing onto the insect and observing its underlying folding mechanism. The study's findings, which help explain how the wings can maintain their strength and rigidity during flight, while becoming elastic for compact folding and storage on the ground, provide hints for the innovative design of a wide range of deployable structures, from satellite antennas to microscopic medical instruments to articles for daily use like umbrellas and fans.
Ladybugs are highly mobile insects that can switch between walking and flying with ease and speed because they can quickly deploy and collapse their wings. Their wings consist of the hardened elytra, the forewings with the familiar spots, and the soft-membrane hindwings used for flight, which are covered and protected by the elytra.
Previous studies have suggested that up-and-down movements in the abdomen and complex origami-like crease patterns on the wings play an important role in the folding process, but how the simple motion produces such an intricate folded shape remained a mystery. Ladybugs close their elytra before wing folding, preventing observation of the detailed process, and as the elytra are essential elements for folding, they also cannot be removed to reveal what lies underneath.
To study the folding mechanism and structure, a Japanese research group constructed a transparent artificial elytron from ultraviolet light-cured resin -- often applied in nail art -- using a silicon impression of an elytron they removed from a Coccinella septempunctata spotted ladybug, and transplanted it to replace the missing forewing.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:05PM (1 child)
they reprogram you if you deviate from the program.
you are hypnotized and command controls are implemented.
you are drugged and given a label.
welcome to the future, the same as the past.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:50PM
Wow, that seems like a lot of work just to keep aphids off my roses!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Tuesday May 16 2017, @02:17PM (3 children)
Would be nice if they got a little credit should their technique be directly implemented in some way. They are struggling to survive in some places, much like bees, who also do much thankless work for us.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:10PM
We offer chemical-free room and board on our rose bushes, but I have to figure out whether ladybugs get addresses from yelp or just a Google search.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @10:24PM (1 child)
It's funny to see a White Nationalist get all soft and sentimental over Lady Bugs. Wonderful that you want to save the bees, but look to your own fucking party when it comes to who is propping up MonSatan and the others. The people trying to make it the most difficult for the bees, in the interests of profit, are your White Nationalist buddies. You may know them from their old name: Republicans.
So if you guys really do have a soft side for the environment, I suggest pulling your heads out of your asses as a first step.
Ohh, and thank you from the Lady Bugs :)
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:57PM
Hurr durr muh AC
Into the trash it goes. As if race has anything to do with Nationalism - There should be French Nationalists in France, British Nationalists in Britain, Zimbabwean Nationalists in Zimbabwe - all working for the betterment of their homes and prioritizing the betterment of their People. I am an American Nationalist. Anyone who pledges their hearts to the implementation of Enlightenment ideas by the Founding Fathers is, in my eyes, a fellow citizen. Whatever philosophy Sweden has developed, their citizens should be proud of it as well. Or Venezuelan, or Zimbabwean. Science changes and improves over time, the Principles of Freedom, in the Constution as much as in the GPL, can hardly improve further, in principle, to my eyes.
As if MonSatan didn't flourish under Obama, and as if Shillary wasn't packing her coffers with donations from equally large and heinous corporations and countries.
More on topic, the environmental policies of Trump are the most significant stance of his which I have disliked since the beginning - they are unabashedly horrible. It's just a shame that I can completely understand the reasoning behind wanting to get people back to work to pay off the country's debt and, more importantly, rescue the country's unemployed people from a life of reliance on the welfare state, which, even if half-asleep people are comfortable in doing, will never lead to their personal freedom and sense of personal success.
More people working will also lower taxes for the rest of us so we can stop having plenty of reason to be resentful against people who (and there are hundreds of thousands of them) exist only to freeload. That is a quick way to break societal bonds and generate resentment, opening the doors to even more extremism.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday May 17 2017, @01:30AM (3 children)
For once I RFTA, and there isn't even a video or even illustration showing the findings. Just a measly half paragraph tucked at the bottom of the article, describing in highly general terms what might have been found. hashtagdisappoint.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jimtheowl on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:00PM (2 children)
You can find illustrations in the PDF below.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/05/09/1620612114.full.pdf [pnas.org]
The first link is at the top of the summary, not the bottom. At the bottom of sciencedaily.com, there is a Journal reference, which is where the real stuff is, or you can just click the 'figures' tab.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1620612114 [doi.org]
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday May 18 2017, @01:25AM (1 child)
Hmm, there is no such link at, near, or in the vicinity of the top of the summary for me, nor do I have multiple tabs - least of all one named "figures".
Thanks for the pdf link, that was what I was hoping to read at TFA!
Oh, and apparently one can access the movies in the "supplemental information" [pnas.org] section, just not the pdf
(Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Thursday May 18 2017, @02:31AM
It is captivating to watch.