Category: Animals - Ascension Now

Polish Wonder: Rademenes, the nurse cat who comforts sick animals

13/9/2015

Sputnik News : 12 Sep 2015

Black cats are usually considered unlucky, especially when they are crossing someone's path, which in some countries, including Russia, is a bad omen; however, this Polish feline is one-of-a-kind: he is a full-time nurse to the ailing inhabitants of a veterinary center and a true symbol of the clinic.

Rademenes was brought to a veterinary clinic in Bydgoszcz, Poland with one purpose — to end his suffering, Izabella Szolginia, the director of the center told Sputnik. He was in such bad shape that the staff at the shelter would not let him near the other animals. But when veterinarian Krystyna Kuziel-Zawalich took him in her arms and heard him purr, she decided to help him fight for his life.

© YouTube/Cool Panda
Rademenes, the 'nurse cat' lends a paw to veterinarians at Polish animal shelter in Bydgoszczy.

It took him half a year to come back to life, Szolginia says. However, after a while the personnel noticed something unusual in his behavior. The staff were amazed to watch him lying with the shelter's furry patients. He paid particularly close attention to those which were recovering from surgery.

© YouTube/Cool Panda

It seemed that Rademenes took it upon himself to assume the role of a full-time nurse. Szolginia says that the animals, for their part, became less nervous, as if they were sure that if nothing bad happened to this particular cat, they would also be all right.

The veterinarian also explained that the unusual name, Rademenes, comes from a Polish children's TV series, where a cat is the reincarnation of a man from Egypt who grants seven wishes to a boy who saves him from thugs.

© YouTube/Cool Panda

© YouTube/Cool Panda

Mysteries of the Unseen World

12/9/2015

We live in a world of unseeable beauty, so subtle and delicate that it is imperceptible to the human eye. To bring this invisible world to light, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg bends the boundaries of time and space with high-speed cameras, time lapses and microscopes.

At the 2014 TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada., he shares highlights from his latest project, a 3D film titled "Mysteries of the Unseen World", which slows down, speeds up, and magnifies the astonishing wonders of nature.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate
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Scientists discover how to use plants to clean up the world's many TNT contaminated sites

7/9/2015

Will Dunham : Reuters : 03 Sep 2015

A plant with a mutation in a gene called MDHAR6 (R) displays enhanced tolerance to TNT in the soil compared to a plant without the mutation (L) in this University of York image released on September 3, 2015.

Scientists have discovered why TNT is so toxic to plants and intend to use this knowledge to tackle the problem of cleaning up the many sites worldwide contaminated by the commonly used explosive.

Researchers on Thursday said they have pinpointed an enzyme in plants that reacts with TNT, which is present in the soil at contaminated sites, and damages plant cells. TNT pollution can devastate vegetation and leave land desolate.

Conventional breeding techniques could be used to produce plants like grasses that would lack the enzyme and be more tolerant of TNT, they said. These could be grown to re-vegetate contaminated land and remove TNT from the soil.

"Explosives such as TNT are toxic not only to plants but also animals, microbes and aquatic life," said biotechnology professor Neil Bruce of Britain's University of York, who led the study in the journal Science. "Large areas of land are now contaminated by explosives, and there is a pressing need to find low-cost sustainable solutions to containing these pollutants and ideally removing these pollutants from contaminated areas. Plants have the potential to do this if we can alleviate the toxicity issue."

TNT has been used as an explosive for more than a century. Vast quantities have been manufactured and used, polluting military live-fire training ranges, manufacturing waste sites, mines and war zones. It resists being broken down by microbes and remains in the soil for decades. "In the U.S., it is estimated there are about 10 million hectares (24 million acres) of military land contaminated with munitions constituents, many of which contain TNT," University of York biologist Liz Rylott said.

TNT lingers in plant roots, inhibiting growth and development. The researchers, working with a small flowering plant called Arabidopsis thaliana common in laboratory experiments, found that specimens with a mutation in a gene called MDHAR6 were able to thrive in TNT-contaminated soil. Plants lacking the mutation struggled in the same soil. The gene controls an enzyme that recycles vitamin C in structures called mitochondria that provide the energy that powers cells. The enzyme converts TNT to a more toxic compound that damages a plant's cellular machinery. The plants with the mutation produced a non-functional enzyme version, short-circuiting TNT toxicity.

The researchers said Arabidopsis is too small and weedy to be useful at TNT-contaminated sites but plants like switchgrass could be bred for this trait and introduced within around five years.

Red-winged blackbird rides on red-tailed hawk's back

4/8/2015

Ben Hooper : upi.com : 04 Aug 2015

© Mike White - "Hitching a Ride."
The U.S. Department of the Interior shared a photo from a wildlife refuge showing a red-winged blackbird hitching a ride on the back of a red-tailed hawk. The photo, which was shared by the department on Facebook and Instagram, was snapped by eagle-eyed photographer Mike White at the DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges in Nebraska and Iowa.

"We occasionally see territorial blackbirds (among others) dive-bombing raptors, but this is definitely something you don't see every day," the department said.

See also: Cheeky crow hitches lift on bald eagle in mid-flight

Cheeky crow hitches lift on bald eagle in mid-flight

11/7/2015

David Raven : Daily Mirror, UK : 30 Jun 2015

This chance-meeting was captured by an amateur photographer while the much larger predatory bird was trying find itself an early morning snack. This cheeky crow was pictured hitching a lift on a bald eagle's back. Fancying a free ride, the brave black bird landed on the wings of the much larger predator mid-flight.

Right: Short Break - the crow relaxes for a few seconds before flying off again

Their encounter lasted several seconds before the birds parted and flew their separate ways.

Luckily, amateur photographer Phoo Chan was on hand to capture the incredible images this week in Washington, USA.

Left: Hitchhiker - the crow performs a flawless landing

The surprise guest interrupted the bald eagle who was searching for an early morning snack.

Miraculously, the predator didn't even flinch and carried on as if nothing had happened.

Dead zones: places where no animal can survive found in Atlantic Ocean

6/5/2015

RT.com : 03 May 2015

© NASA Earth Observatory
Example of an ocean eddy (not from the study) as seen from space.

A team of German and Canadian marine biologists have for the first time ever witnessed so-called 'dead zones' in the Atlantic Ocean - places where no life can thrive, owing to there being almost no dissolved oxygen in the water.

Zones depleted of oxygen do exist in nature and have been discovered along populated coastal areas off the eastern and southern coasts of the USA and the Baltic Sea. But this is the first time such a place has been observed in the open ocean.

In a paper published in the journal Biogeosciences, researchers outline the existence of pockets of low-oxygenated patches of water in the Atlantic Ocean.

They are vast - sometimes 100 square miles in size. They travel constantly and are also seasonal. One of the biggest ever discovered forms each year in the Gulf of Mexico.

What makes these things tick is a hodge-podge of nutrients and microbes delivered from elsewhere. It's a cyclical process: the nutrients are food for algae blooms, which in turn get devoured by microorganism. This creates waste, which is then eaten by other microbes. This process uses up a lot of oxygen, creating oxygen-free pockets. The nutrient run-off here is a means of transportation. But if you're an animal or fish, there are only two options: moving and surviving, or staying and dying.

Dead zones are normally found in shallow water, where not a lot of mixing takes place. The Atlantic Ocean is obviously very different, which creates a puzzle. Researchers found that these particular dead zones masquerade as 'eddies' - basically huge underwater ocean cyclones that spin into a vortex, practically no different to how weather sometimes acts above ground. They can twist uninterrupted for months on end. The spinning vortex creates a wall around the central core - a process, which quickly depletes oxygen from it, and so, a dead zone is born.

"The fast rotation of the eddies makes it very difficult to exchange oxygen across the boundary between the rotating current and the surrounding ocean. Moreover, the circulation creates a very shallow layer - of a few tens of meters - on top of the swirling water that supports intense plant growth," study author Johannes Karstensen of the University of Bremen says in the press release of the journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

What surprised him and the team was that the levels of oxygen depletion found previously in dead zones were way off: before the study, common estimates put dissolved oxygen at around 1 milliliter per liter of seawater. Karstensen and team, though, found the lower end of the spectrum in the Atlantic to contain only 0.3 milliliters. The intensity of the phenomena is dependent upon the speed of the eddy, chemical concentration, weather patterns and the Earth's rotation.

The researchers worry that the existence of dead zones even at the center of the Atlantic could have an effect on people living on land, particularly in Cape Verde. "Given that the few dead zones we observed propagated less than 100 kilometers north of the Cape Verde archipelago, it is not unlikely that an open-ocean dead zone will hit the islands at some point," Kartsensen explains. "This could cause the coast to be flooded with low-oxygen water, which may put severe stress on the coastal ecosystems and may even provoke fish kills and the die-off of other marine life."
http://www.sott.net/article/296009-Dead-zones-Places-where-no-animal-can-survive-found-in-Atlantic-Ocean

Mutual aid : raccoon rides a boar to get to corn feeder

24/4/2015

Sam Webb : Daily Mirror, UK : 22 Apr 2015

It looks like something out of a Disney movie, but this picture of a raccoon riding a boar is completely legit. The incredible picture was snapped by an automatic camera close to a corn feeder and is believed to have been taken in Texas.

After it emerged online, some commenters speculated that the raccoon was hopping on the back to reach the feeder - so both animals could feast.

One said: "The animals go to eat the corn that is dropped from the feeder twice a day, and the camera snaps a picture. Probably, the boar and the raccoon found themselves at the feeder every day waiting for the corn to come out. One day the raccoon tried to get at the feeder by climbing on the nearest thing - the boar. Maybe the raccoon was able to shake the feeder and get some more corn to come out. If it worked, then they would keep doing it. Boars are dumb. It is probably too busy eating corn to worry about the raccoon on its back. If it meant getting more food, it would tolerate just about anything."

Another added: "We need more cameras in the woods. Who knows how much animal comedy is being wasted on animals?"

BBC News : The girl who gets gifts from birds

9/3/2015

By Katy Sewall, Seattle

Lots of people love the birds in their garden, but it's rare for that affection to be reciprocated. One young girl in Seattle is luckier than most. She feeds the crows in her garden - and they bring her gifts in return.

Eight-year-old Gabi Mann sets a bead storage container on the dining room table, and clicks the lid open. This is her most precious collection. "You may take a few close looks," she says, "but don't touch." It's a warning she's most likely practised on her younger brother. She laughs after saying it though. She is happy for the audience.

Inside the box are rows of small objects in clear plastic bags. One label reads: "Black table by feeder. 2:30 p.m. 09 Nov 2014." Inside is a broken light bulb. Another bag contains small pieces of brown glass worn smooth by the sea. "Beer coloured glass," as Gabi describes it. Each item is individually wrapped and categorised. Gabi pulls a black zip out of a labelled bag and holds it up. "We keep it in as good condition as we can," she says, before explaining this object is one of her favourites. There's a miniature silver ball, a black button, a blue paper clip, a yellow bead, a faded black piece of foam, a blue Lego piece, and the list goes on. Many of them are scuffed and dirty. It is an odd assortment of objects for a little girl to treasure, but to Gabi these things are more valuable than gold. She didn't gather this collection. Each item was a gift - given to her by crows.

She holds up a pearl coloured heart. It is her most-prized present. "It's showing me how much they love me."

“If you want to form a bond with a crow, be consistent in rewarding them” - John Marzluff, Prof of wildlife science

Gabi's relationship with the neighbourhood crows began accidentally in 2011. She was four years old, and prone to dropping food. She'd get out of the car, and a chicken nugget would tumble off her lap. A crow would rush in to recover it. Soon, the crows were watching for her, hoping for another bite.

As she got older she rewarded their attention by sharing her packed lunch on the way to the bus stop. Her brother joined in. Soon, crows were lining up in the afternoon to greet Gabi's bus, hoping for another feeding session.

You can read the rest of this article at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31604026

Limpet teeth discovered to be strong enough to construct ships

20/2/2015

RT : 18 Feb 2015

© wikipedia.org :
The true limpet species Patella vulgata on a rock surface in Wales

The newest contender for the strongest material is found in the sea. Science has discovered recently that teeth belonging to tiny marine creatures called limpets are so incredibly tough they could be used to construct boats.

The chompers are 100 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair. Scientists have determined that if we built huge structures from material fashioned from limpet teeth, they would be as strong and unbreakable as the smallest piece of the material - a massive advantage for engineering.

Limpets are snail-type creatures crawling along the sea bed, carrying their portable, cone-shaped homes with them. Scientists decided to use a process known as atomic force microscopy on a set of limpet teeth to test how the material behaves at a microscopic level, and how strongly it bonds together. The University of Portsmouth study came out with surprising results. Professor Asa Barber says: "Until now we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics, but now we have discovered that limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is potentially higher."

Barber discovered that this is due to goethite, a mineral found inside the teeth and formed by the animal as it grows. Limpets develop strong teeth to latch onto rocks and scrape off algae, their primary food source. As if by design, "the fibers are just the right size to make up a resilient composite structure."

What the team also discovered is that limpet teeth stay the same strength no matter the size. This is really important, as "generally a big structure has lots of flaws and can break more easily... Limpet teeth break this rule as their strength is the same no matter what the size."

And since "engineers are always interested in making these structures stronger to improve their performance or lighter so they use less material," replicating these structures at the atomic level could catapult the science to new highs. Barber listed "F1 cars, hulls of boats and aircraft structures" as just some of the potential production applications.

Science couldn't have done anything with the discovery earlier, because techniques for splitting the ultra-thin mineral have only recently been invented. "We had to cut out a smaller volume of material out of the curved tooth structure," which is less than 1mm, Barker explains.

According to Barker, the challenge with bio-inspired science is finding natural structures that could prove useful and innovative, as there are so many to choose from. "Nature is a wonderful source of inspiration for structures that have excellent mechanical properties. All the things we observe around us, such as trees, the shells of sea creatures and the limpet teeth studied in this work, have evolved to be effective at what they do."
Source

Monkey revives electrocuted fellow monkey

16/1/2015

Lisa Suhay : Christian Science Monitor : Mon, 22 Dec 2014

A monkey in India patiently and persistently works to revive a fellow monkey.

Pope Francis recently proclaimed that animals have souls and can go to heaven. Now, one monkey in Kanpur, India, has displayed the kind of compassion and heroics many humans might admire. This monkey - probably a Rhesus macaque, the most common urban dweller in India - worked frantically to revive another monkey that had passed out on the train tracks after getting a severe shock while cavorting on an electric wire above the station.

Dozens of humans watched, took videos and snapped photos on Dec. 21, but none made a move to help as the doggedly determined little monkey shook, bit, slapped, and splashed water on the unconscious primate. When his companion was finally revived, the two huddled together in a safe space between the tracks.

The video shows that once the injured monkey was revived, the rescuer continued to hold, rock, pet and support its injured companion while it regained its bearings.
http://www.sott.net/article/290533-A-lesson-for-humans-Monkey-revives-electrocuted-fellow-monkey

Yellowstone brucellosis-free bison to be given to Indian tribes instead of zoos

17/10/2014

Laura Zuckerman : Reuters : 17 Oct 2014

© Reuters/Jim Urquhart :
A car is stopped by a herd of bison crossing the highway in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, June 8, 2013.

(extract) An Indian reservation in Montana will receive 145 bison from Yellowstone National Park that were quarantined to create a herd free of a disease that threatens ranchers' cattle, according to a government plan approved on Thursday.

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission agreed unanimously to give the bison to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation to further the conservation of the country's last herd of wild, purebred buffalo. The tribe was chosen instead of a proposal to distribute the iconic, hump-shouldered creatures to six organizations across five states, including New York's Bronx and Queens zoos. The bison were part of a government experiment that quarantined the animals to produce a band free of the cattle disease brucellosis, which is carried by roughly half of Yellowstone's buffalo. The success of the experiment gave Montana assurance that relocating the bison would not pose a risk of transmitting brucellosis to commercial livestock. The ailment can cause cows to miscarry.

Commissioners adopted the revised plan after calls by buffalo advocates not to send the animals out of state when Indian lands in Montana were suitable and where tribal biologists have already proven they can manage bison, said Andrea Jones, spokeswoman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. In 2012, the Fort Peck tribes saw the historic return of 63 Yellowstone buffalo to their reservation under a plan crafted by state, federal and tribal bison managers. Montana Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Lawrence Wetsit said the tribes would be open to working with the state on possibly distributing offspring of the brucellosis-free bison to zoos and other proposed recipients like the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

You can read the complete article at Reuters.

Animal Whisperer calms an angry black leopard : life-changing for both cat and man

28/2/2014

Sometimes we must stand back from our human form and look at how connected it is.

Arjan Postma·80 videos : Published on 19 Nov 2013
I just want to share this message as much as possible without any commercial intent, personal benefit or whatsoever. All used materials and therefore copyrights do not belong to me. I hope you enjoy discovering and watching this story and skill as much as I did. I found the source of this amazing documentary on the following site: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/docum...

What if you could talk to animals and have them talk back to you? Anna Breytenbach has dedicated her life to what she calls interspecies communication. She sends detailed messages to animals through pictures and thoughts. She then receives messages of remarkable clarity back from the animals. In this video, Anna transforms a deadly snarling leopard into a relaxed content cat. The amazing story of how leopard Diabolo became Spirit...

This is the first full length documentary film on the art of animal communication. Nominated for Best Long Documentary, Best Director of "Jade Kunlun" Awards of 2012, World Mountain Documentary Festival of Qinghai China.

Want to learn more about Anna and the science of animal communication? Buy her DVD at: http://www.kalahari.com/Film/The-Anim...
Director: Craig Foster | Producer: Vyv Simson | Narrator: Swati Thiyagarajan
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2012 | Story Teller's Country: South Africa

What if animals could talk to you?
Submitted by Trinity on 8 December, 2013 - 20:10 World News View
http://openhandweb.org/animal_communication_documentary

I've just watched the most incredible film about communicating with animals. The message it brings us is so deep. I feel that Anna Breytenbach, a highly skilled, telepathic, inter-species communicator holds an important key to the evolution of humanity and this planet. Anna understands the trauma experienced by the animals in the documentary in a way that I have never seen before; transforming a deadly growling black leopard into a peaceful cat; having wild baboons groom her hair; experiencing fish swimming right up to her in a river; wild birds landing on her shoulder etc...

It's all about the vibration!

So what does this mean for us?

It's no secret that the human race as a whole has lost something incredibly sacred and divine: the ability to communicate soul to soul with absolute authenticity... the ability to permeate through the veil of illusion and connect with what is really real. If people are able to openly embrace the gift of communication with other animals and nature, we'd experience first hand the inter-connectedness of all life. We'd sense the need to honour and respect the earth and all of our fellow sentient beings. For humans this would mean reclaiming the lost aspects of our soul and meeting in the place where we no longer judge one another; the space where we align with the natural flow of the universe. We'd know exactly how we are meant to co-exist and live in harmony with this world. This opens the pathway to the higher paradigm.

Enjoy this deeply inspiring clip about the amazing story of the black leopard encounter and consider watching the full film.

Dead whales (and other animals) are showing up, bringing us a message the entire world should see

31/1/2014

More people are starting to look at what we've done to this planet, especially since the birth of the technological revolution. Our oceans have been suffering for a very long time, with countless oil spills and toxic waste dumped into them every single day from industrial practices and more. Despite having numerous ways to operate in a fashion that is more harmonious with the planet, we continue to choose to destroy our planet on a daily basis, and we can't afford to do that anymore. Despite how much our planet is suffering, people everyday are starting wake up and realize that we really do need to look at, question, and change the way we operate here on planet Earth. This shift in perception alone can help springboard us towards change, and creating a new experience for us and other beings who we share the planet with.

Whales have been showing up dead on multiple beaches, bringing us a message with stomachs full of plastic. This has happened multiple times. In the summer of july 2013, a sperm whale was stranded on Tershelling, a Northern island in the Netherlands. The whale swallowed 56 different plastic items that totalled over 37 pounds. In april 2010, a gray whale died after stranding itself on a West Seattle beach, it was found to have over 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, duct tape, and more in its system. In March of 2013 a dead sperm whale washed up on Spain's South coast which swallowed 17kg of plastic waste.

The list goes on and on. Keep in mind, these are whales who choose to beach themselves or have washed up on shore, think about all the whales and other marine beings that don't.

These are not uncommon events, in 1989 a stranded sperm whale in the Lavezzi Islands died of a stomach obstruction after accidentally ingesting plastic bags and 100 feet of plastic sheeting. A paper published in 1990 reports that a sperm whale in Iceland died due to a complete obstruction of the gut with plastic marine debris. In August 2008, a sperm whale washed up dead on the beach near Point Reyes, California, with 450 Pounds of fishing net, plastic bags and rope found in its stomach (see picture above) In 2008, the California Marine Mammal Stranding Database recorded another sperm whale with enormous amounts of plastic and fish netting in its stomach. I'll stop there as there are countless examples.

By now, you've probably heard of "The Great Garbage Patch," it's an area the size of Queensland, Australia where there is approximately one million tonnes of plastic spread throughout the ocean. Drag a net in any area of this part of the ocean and you will pick up toxic, discarded plastic.

We've shown this video before, but here it is again just in case you missed it.

Phan Anh·1 video

With the Fukushima disaster and the famous gulf oil spill in 2004, as well as many more we don't even hear about, I'm surprised anything at all is alive in our oceans. These events, and many more should stop everyone from their daily routines, just stop, and say no more. The world should not continue forward, people should not go to work, it's time for all of us to stop, come together and change this world. Now is our window of opportunity. These events should really serve as triggers for us to wake up and change our ways.

A mass collective desire to change these things is what has, and will put the human race on a journey to do so. It's time to educate ourselves about what is really happening on the planet, and bring awareness to the most important issues we must tackle today. This is why alternative media outlets are so important, they bring awareness and shed light on what corporate media hardly covers.

Our planet is calling on us to change our ways, and the change starts with you. At the same time, our planet is calling for a massive transformation. All of the corporations and toxic industrial practices must stop what they are doing. New, clean , green technology is available and we could easily replace all of these plastics with hemp, and much much more. We have so many solutions, yet we do not implement them.

I want to provide solutions to this problem, and it's hard to come up with them other than making changes in your own lives. There are wonderful individuals like this one, a 19 year old boy who developed a cleanup array that could remove over seven million tons of plastic from our oceans.

Sources:
As the oceans choke on plastic so do the whales.
Spanish sperm whale death linked to UK supermarket supplier's plastic

R & S : Thu, 30 Jan 2014 : xposethereal.com

Dr Rupert Sheldrake, 'The Science Delusion': Banned TED Talk (now reinstated)

1/10/2013

Scientist Dr Rupert Sheldrake gave a TED Talk on the dogmas of scientific materialism. TED didn't like it too much and removed it from its Youtube channel. Thankfully it has been re-uploaded...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHUaNAxsTg

http://www.sheldrake.org/

Follow this link for TED's statement on the matter and Dr. Sheldrake's response.

Functioning 'Mechanical Gears' seen in Nature for first time

17/9/2013

Image of young planthopper by study author Malcolm Burrows.

Sep. 12, 2013 — Previously believed to be only human-made, a natural example of a functioning gear mechanism has been discovered in a common insect -- showing that evolution developed interlocking cogs long before we did.

The juvenile Issus - a plant-hopping insect found in gardens across Europe -- has hind-leg joints with curved cog-like strips of opposing 'teeth' on the upper portion of the rear legs that intermesh, rotating like mechanical gears to synchronise the animal's legs when it launches into a jump. These gears are lost as the animal ages and are thus rather like training gears.

The finding demonstrates that gear mechanisms previously thought to be solely human-made have an evolutionary precedent. Scientists say this is the "first observation of mechanical gearing in a biological structure."

The gears in the Issus hind-leg bear remarkable engineering resemblance to those found on every bicycle and inside every car gear-box. Each gear tooth has a rounded corner at the point it connects to the gear strip; a feature identical to human-made gears such as bike gears -- essentially a shock-absorbing mechanism to stop teeth from shearing off.

The gear teeth on the opposing hind-legs lock together like those in a car gear-box, ensuring almost complete synchronicity in leg movement -- the legs always move within 30 'microseconds' of each other, with one microsecond equal to a millionth of a second.

Through a combination of anatomical analysis and high-speed video capture of normal Issus movements, scientists from the University of Cambridge have been able to reveal these functioning natural gears for the first time. The findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Science.

You can read the complete article at : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130912143627.htm