Gears are ubiquitous in the man-made world, found in items ranging from wristwatches to car engines, but it seems that nature invented them first. A species of plant-hopping insect, Issus coleoptratus ...

People’s proud invention of gears was preceded by mindless evolution: The tiny points on the legs of juvenile planthopper insects move like intermeshing cogs. Those cogs in young Issus coleoptratus ...

Right now, there’s a fly walking on the window in my office. I asked my friend Rich Zack how it does that. He’s an insect scientist at Washington State University. It turns out my window isn’t as ...

is a senior tech and policy editor focused on VR, online platforms, and free expression. Adi has covered video games, biohacking, and more for The Verge since 2011. Gears are a potent symbol of human ...

Insect legs could help engineers improve the safety of long tubular structures used in aircraft to reduce weight and in hospital equipment, such as catheters. Scientists from Trinity College Dublin ...

A garden variety bug found in backyards around the world has been hiding a surprising secret in plain sight, a set of natural gears essential to its prodigious jumping ability. Without the gear wheels ...

For a disconcerting experience, consider how mechanical you are. Humans may be conscious beings with higher feelings, but really we’re just fancy machines with joints, motors, valves, and a whole lot ...

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) – Would you like some mouse hair in your peanut butter? How about some bugs in your broccoli? It may sound gross, but our food contains everything from rodent hairs to small ...

Adaptability explains why insects spread so widely and why they are the most abundant animal group on earth. Insects exhibit resilient and flexible locomotion, even with drastic changes in their body ...

Scientists at the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland have begun studying how to integrate the functionalities of insect legs with modern aircraft designs in order to reduce their weight and make them ...

Nick Statt is a Senior Producer on Decoder. Previously, he reported on the technology and gaming industries for more than a decade. The Defense Advanced Research Institute now has a solution for ...