If you think humans invented the kind of gears you find in an automobile transmission, think again. Scientists have discovered that the humble Issus, a plant hopping insect the size of a flea, has ...

The film *Spinning Levers* explores the fundamental mechanics of levers and gears, illustrating their role in various everyday applications and in the complex workings of a car’s transmission ...

In the mood for a mechanical puzzle? Gears Logic Puzzles is a simple but challenging app that presents you with a set of gears — some of them fixed, some of them loose.

Researchers have discovered, for the first time, “mechanical gears” in nature. Juvenile planthoppers use a set of interlocking teeth, similar to cogs, to coordinate their legs as they jump ...

Journal Reference: Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton. Interacting Gears Synchronize Propulsive Leg Movements in a Jumping Insect. Science, 13 September 2013: 1254-1256 DOI: 10.1126/science.1240284 ...

Even before the Industrial Revolution, gears of one kind or another have been put to work both for and against us. From ancient water wheels and windmills that ground grain and pounded flax, to the… ...

The gears aren’t connected all the time. One is located on each of the insect’s hind legs, and when it prepares to jump, the two sets of teeth lock together. As a result, the legs move in ...

Many mechanical devices have been inspired by examples in nature, but it's not often that nature replicates something only known to be made by human beings. Meet Issus coeleoptratus, more commonly ...

The gears are located at the top of the insects’ hind legs (on segments known as trochantera) and include 10 to 12 tapered teeth, each about 80 micrometers wide (or 80 millionths of a meter).