Walking On Water

Water striders are insects that have developed a technique allowing them to seem as they walk on top of water. On top of that they escape their predators such as frogs, other insects, and fish by leaping vertically while still not breaking the water tension upon landing. This insect does so by bringing its legs in and slowly pushing down onto the water in a slow manner at first. The water strider speeds up the motion of its legs without ever using an amount of power that could break the water tension during the jump.

This jumping tactic of the insect was discovered through high speed video analyzed by researchers at Seoul National University. These researchers than combined with scientist from Harvard to create size equivalent robot in order to prove their hypothesis. This robot carried out the function of a water strider by an alloy being able to stretch its length and than when heated go back to its original form. They included artificial legs that worked like a moveable spring attached to the alloy. The scientist based their jumping form off a flea by bringing the legs in at a slow motion than quickening it. The robot was able to successfully jump as a water strider would. This research was done in order for researchers to understand the locomotion of this insect in a better way.

As a child I had always wondered how water striders were able to stay on the surface of water, figuring their body weight was simply very low. These small insects have been able to figure out exactly how much force is able to break water surface tension and have nearly perfected their technique to avoid doing so is truly fascinating.