“Previous studies of slithering have rested on the assumption that snakes slither by pushing laterally against rocks and branches.” explain a joint research team from the Applied Mathematics Laboratory, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, of New York University and the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biology, at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Suspecting that this […]
Tag: snakes
Plasticine snakes – their use in research.
Plasticine® was invented by William Harbutt of Bathampton, near Bath, England, in 1897. Since then, it has been extensively employed as a plaything (and, of course, as the core technology behind the development of Wallace and Gromit®). The extent of the use of Plasticine® in scientific research is, however, currently undocumented, but Improbable has tracked […]
Heads Up: Snakes in your MRI tube
A simple experiment: put a person in a tube. Add a snake. Details are reported in the study [and click on the image here to see the video that accompanies the study]: “Fear Thou Not: Activity of Frontal and Temporal Circuits in Moments of Real-Life Courage,” Uri Nili, Hagar Goldberg, Abraham Weizman and Yadin Dudai, […]
Bush Smeller Study: Snakes
The Bush Smeller collaboration — the collaboration of Mitchell Bush and Johanna Smeller — produced this study on snakes (thanks to investigator Ben Haller for bringing it to our attention): “Blood Collection and Injection Techniques in Snakes,” Mitchell Bush and Johanna Smeller, Veterinary Medicine / Small Animal Clinician, vol. 73, February 1978, pp. 211-4.