Robots helped achieve a major breakthrough in our understanding of how insect flight evolved. The study is a result of a six-year long collaboration between roboticists and biophysicists. Robots built ...

Different insects flap their wings in different manners. Understanding the variations between these modes of flight may help scientists design better and more efficient flying robots in the future.

About 350 million years ago, our planet witnessed the evolution of the first flying creatures. They are still around, and some of them continue to annoy us with their buzzing. While scientists have ...

Thrips don't rely on lift in order to fly. Instead, the tiny insects rely on a drag-based flight mechanism, staying afloat in airflow velocities with a large ratio of force to wing size. Researchers ...

American Journal of Botany, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Apr., 1979), pp. 404-411 (8 pages) Certain leaves of Triphyophyllum peltatum (Hutch. & Dalz.) Airy Shaw (Dioncophyllaceae) have an extended, erect midrib ...

The structure of fibrillar flight muscle / D.E. Ashhurst and M.J. Cullen -- Extraction, purification, and localization of [alpha]-actinin from asynchronous insect flight muscle / D.E. Goll [and others ...

When you watch an insect fly in slow motion, you get a whole new perspective on the complexity of movement and engineering. A new collaborative research project, funded by the U.S. Air Force, is ...

Mechanical flying insects can soon be made using printers. Increasingly, so-called 3-D printers are being used to make items out of plastic, metal, glass, ceramic, even sugar and mashed potatoes. They ...