Over the past few years, robotics experts have been working on developing intelligent robots, capable of conducting a wide array of missions. Right now, scientists based at the Georgia Tech University are working on emulating ants' teamwork and snake movements in two new classes of robots.
These machines would ... |
23 January 2012
03:49 GMT |
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Snakes are notorious for being able to hear even though they lack an external ear. Scientists have been puzzled at how that is possible for quite some time, and recently they were able to figure out that the reptiles' heads vibrate.
The inner ear picks up these vibrations, and turns them into sound sensations.... |
22 December 2011
10:25 GMT |
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Burmese pythons contain a mix of chemicals in their bodies that is apparently capable of promoting the production of new cardiac cells in the bodies of lab mice. The new tissue looked as if it was created following vigorous exercises.
All the three fatty acids that investigators discovered during this study were fo... |
28 October 2011
10:58 GMT |
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In the Geology Building of the Indiana University (IU) Bloomington, organizers have begun displaying remains of the largest snake to have ever slithered across the surface of the Earth. The massive beast measured 13.1 meters (43 feet) in length from its snout to the end of its tail, and weighed in at a massive 1,133 ... |
30 August 2010
10:59 GMT |
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Biologists and naturalists have been wondering for a long time why precisely snakes are capable of discovering prey in the dark, and then attack it very precisely, seemingly without effort. Some experts have hypothesized that the trait is based on the creatures' ability to see some of the infrared wavelengths of... |
15 March 2010
02:30 GMT |
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For the first time ever, experts have managed to obtain definite proof that ancient snakes were indeed in the habit of eating dinosaur eggs and hatchlings. Some researchers had proposed this idea, but until now no solid piece of evidence has been found to support it. In this study, scientists identified a 67-million-... |
2 March 2010
14:01 GMT |
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Scientists proposed some time ago that some of the most basic and widespread phobias people have may be innate, as in inherited even before birth. The most common ones are arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), and investigators say that this makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point... |
18 February 2010
06:31 GMT |
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Scientists were amazed to learn that certain species of marine snakes seem to employ decoy defenses against possible attackers. Especially notable in such a role is the yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrine), which, in addition to packing one of the most potent venoms in the animal world, also has two heads. O... |
6 August 2009
03:57 GMT |
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A small and otherwise harmless water snake has learned a neat trick, which ensures that unsuspecting fish commit suicide via snake mouth (and die from it) a large number of times. Coiled up in a specific position, the water snake expects its prey to approach, and then scares it away with a single body move; unfortuna... |
1 July 2009
21:11 GMT |
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How snakes can move across sandy or flat terrain, where there is nothing to push against for forward motion, has been a long-standing question for biologists, who have thus far believed that the animals move by propelling themselves against small rocks or branches. But a new mathematical model seems to show that they... |
9 June 2009
02:32 GMT |
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When an Australian Terrier owner woke up in the morning and found that her darling Bindi wasn't around the kitchen, she knew that something was wrong, so she went on to look for the small dog. Owner Patty Buntine scouted throughout the house and in the yard, but found no sign of the canine. However, she did come... |
17 March 2009
07:38 GMT |
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All around the world, people are used to seeing all sorts of animals, of various shapes and sizes. New species appear or go extinct everyday, yet there are those creatures that seem so peculiar to us because they are very very tiny. And from an evolutionary point of view, they make no sense, seeing how size is usuall... |
11 February 2009
01:57 GMT |
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It's official! The oldest snake fossils known to date belong to those of a new species, whose fossils have been discovered in Colombia. The animal named Titanoboa cerrejonensis (the titan boa) is a predecessor of today's boa constrictor, one of the largest snakes in the world. Its ancestor had a length of 4... |
5 February 2009
06:57 GMT |
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The largest snake that ever existed is Gigantophis garstini, which lived from 40 million years ago till as recently as 40,000 years in North Africa. This snake reached 11 m (33 feet) in length, was related to pythons and boa, and could eat animals the size of a wild boar. The biggest current snake is green anaconda (... |
26 February 2007
10:24 GMT |
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