Thursday, June 05, 2003
I'm Over Here
When I was growing up, we had a subscription to a magazine called, Ranger Rick. In it, there was a section titled, “Nature Did It First”. This would show photos of what we, humans, do with our “technology” and then along side, shows a photo of an animal that has been doing it for hundreds or thousands of years.
The grown-up version for this, “Nature Did It First”, could begin
with this article:
"Armies could learn a thing or two about camouflage and defence tactics from dragonflies.
Although many creatures can blend into the scenery when they are still,
male dragonflies have gone a step further and mastered the art of
camouflage while they are moving.
“Deployment of this sophisticated technique...tricks the victim’s retina
into perceiving the stalker as stationary even while it darts about in
pursuit,”...
...the dragonfly achieves motion camouflage by adjusting its position in
order to always occupy the same spot in its prey’s retina—so it looks stationary while it is actually moving." (read the whole article here or you may find it in the Nature journal.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I keep getting flashbacks of a particular
scene in Monty Python’s, Search For The Holy Grail.
