3 ms·
Cicadas' unique urination unlocks new understanding of fluid dynamics
- wglb 3y agoContains a reference to an article > The researchers published this challenge to the paradigm as a brief, "Unifying Fluidic Excretion Across Life from Cicadas to Elephants," in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- turtleyacht 3y agoLink to paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02359 https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02359
- KineticLensman 3y agoThus, larger animals expel larger amounts of liquid in a brief period of time with high flow rates, resulting in an almost constant duration across large mammals (21±13 seconds) following the ‘law of urination’ Awesome. I've bookmarked this to read later, perhaps tonight if I wake up to have a pee.
- hasmanean 3y ago21 +- 13 is stretching the definition of “almost constant.”
- KineticLensman 3y agoYes, although I'll forgive them that for using the 'We' ratio unironically.
- SpaceManNabs 3y agoi didn't think that video would be so interesting. so it is a volume constraint? why don't other bugs do this? just hold more liquid? or do they face other constraints that cicadas don't have? Very curious. constraints meaning those that would influence evolution ofc
- hotfix_cowboy 3y agoWarning, the video is footage of cicadas peeing. It's not a physics diagram or animation of the fluid dynamics involved.
- MarceColl 3y agoWhy is this a warning? I'm very confused, is it somehow "inappropriate"?
- Kerb_ 3y agoI mean, I wasn't offended, but I was also expecting a diagram and was a little surprised to just see high quality cicada piss footage.
- iamleppert 3y agoSome people on this site could be triggered, aroused, or subject to monitoring and adverse action by their employer by viewing such content.
- rustybolt 3y agoI hope you are joking but at this point I don't know anymore.
- msds 3y ago"Droplet superpropulsion in an energetically constrained insect"(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36376-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36376-5 ) is a great paper from the same authors - I came across it last year when I was deep in a project involving droplet manipulation on superhydrophobic surfaces. Nature is wild!
- bitwize 3y agoIndeed. It reminds me of that species of planthopper whose rear legs have interlocking "gears", allowing the insect to jump with both legs together in perfect synchrony: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-insect-has-the-only-mechanical-gears-ever-found-in-nature-6480908/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-insect-ha... Nature is probably richer than we yet know with ideas for physical systems that would boggle our minds.
- dang 3y ago[stub for offtopicness]
- warvair 3y agoNote to self: Don't stand under trees this summer.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- noman-land 3y agoImpressive alliteration in the headline.
- smallerfish 3y ago> However, while cicadas are easily heard, they hide in trees, making them hard to observe. As such, seeing a cicada pee is an event. Here in the tropics, a tree that is full of cicadas will reliably have a steady "mist" of pee underneath its canopy, the ground will be damp, leaves of understory flora wet/shiny, and the air noticeably cooler than outside of the pee zone. Put a camera in the tree and I bet you can get footage easily. Also observable in the US: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/05/25/partly-cloudy-with-chance-cicada-pee/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/05/25/partly-clo..., https://www.thecut.com/2021/05/bad-news-cicadas-pee-a-lot.html https://www.thecut.com/2021/05/bad-news-cicadas-pee-a-lot.ht...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ziffusion 3y agoIt made me very happy, for some reason, that people are systematically and thoroughly studying a subject as obscure as this (fluid dynamics of peeing in insects). I now question if research is happening on every single ridiculous notion that crosses my mind. I bet a bunch of people are actually interested enough in that computation that a field of study exists for it, that I know nothing of, and couldn't find out about if I tried. What all of actual fuck are people looking into?!
- bongodongobob 3y agoReminds me of the first time a bought a mattress. The guy was 60 years old and had been doing it his entire life. I was blown away at the depth of knowledge one could have on mattresses and mattress technology.
- CableNinja 3y agoIve posted it before, but i once learned way more than i ever wanted to know about time, specifically time regarding computers, all to answer a question from the business side of "well why cant we have nanosecond time matching across 10+ systems", and the reason is, because its really really hard and really expensive. This wasnt for science either, it was for VR, making the request even more ridiculous, and putting me in an even deeper hole, finding out the minimum response time of the human brain and eyes. I could talk a lot about it, but most peoples eyes glaze over about 30 seconds in
- wly_cdgr 3y ago"Then, while doing fieldwork in Peru, the team got lucky: They saw numerous cicadas in a tree, peeing." scientists are weird
- charlysl 3y agoIg Noble winner if there ever was one, I bet.
- ars 3y agoI thought that they pee in droplets for the simple reason that they don't have bladders. To pee in a jet requires them to have an entire additional organ to store the pee before ejecting it.