The Clinic published an interview [in Spanish] with Bruno Rossi, who (together with colleagues) was awarded the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize for biology, for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked. […]
Tag: walk
Oh: Brief Walks, and Chocolate Eaters
What of walks and chocolate eaters? Oh, maybe this: “Brisk walking reduces ad libitum snacking in regular chocolate eaters during a workplace simulation,” Hwajung Oh [pictured here], Adrian H. Taylor, Appetite, Volume 58, Issue 1, February 2012, Pages 387-392. The authors, at the University of Exeter, UK, report their discovery: “A brief walk may help […]
‘Silly Walk’ studies (#1)
“Humans have around 50 muscles in each leg, which are arranged in a way that allows us to move in numerous ways. The flexibility of movement in human legs is expressed, for instance, through the different styles of dance that have existed throughout the ages and humorously through TV sketches such as ‘The Ministry of […]
Making them (animals) walk the walk
Animator Sydney Padua, in her blog, draws some insights about how different animals walk [click through, to get to her blog, and see the images much larger, and so read the writing that accompanies each drawing]: Here’s some of my notes on four-legged walks (our feature animal: COWS!) for a class I’m teaching at the Animation […]
Bacteria can walk — and often do
A stand-up-and-take-notice report last month in the journal Science explains that some kinds of bacteria can walk, and that those bacteria often do. The study, done by researchers from UCLA, The University of Illinois, and Notre Dame University, is: “Bacteria Use Type IV Pili to Walk Upright and Detach from Surfaces“, Maxsim L. Gibiansky, Jacinta […]
A Quick Take on Fast Walkers
Some scientists struggle to understand walking, as is evident in this study: “Walking Fast—Ranking High: A Sociobiological Perspective on Pace,” A. Schmitt and K. Atzwanger, Ethology and Sociobiology, vol. 17, no. 5, September 1996, pp. 451–62. The authors explain [AIR 15:5]: “We hypothesized that habitual fast walking might be a means to acquire and/or to […]
Europe’s walking washing machines
For many years, Europe’s washing machines tended to walk across a room, while America’s did not. Daniel Conrad and Werner Soedel explained why, in a study called On the Problem of Oscillatory Walk of Automatic Washing Machines. Their explanation was recognised by authority figures for its power to inspire youths. Conrad and Soedel, based at […]