Comments on: How To Be A Snake [Life in Motion]

By: Blogo-links « Coffee and Sci(ence)

Blogo-links « Coffee and Sci(ence) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:16:33 +0000

[...] How To Be A Snake [Life in Motion], par Carl Zimmer [...]

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:28:57 +0000

Cool article! I’ve always found it hard to get my head around their particular style of locomotion. Very enlightening.

(And I can’t help giggling at the snake on plastic.)

By: Bourgeois_Rage

Bourgeois_Rage — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:44:38 +0000

Nifty.

By: Your Inner Blob | The Loom | Discover Magazine

Your Inner Blob | The Loom | Discover Magazine — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:23:06 +0000

[...] Blogs / The Loom « How To Be A Snake [Life in Motion] [...]

By: QuinnO

QuinnO — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:15:09 +0000

Good point, Romeo – tank movement is similar. I’d been picturing a hell of a bendy bus.

By: Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer Ouellette — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:13:44 +0000

I was also going to point out that snakes aren’t slippery — something about the way they slither makes it seem as if they SHOULD be slippery. In fact, their skin is really dry. I only know this because I had a friend long ago who had a pet reticulated python, and when he went out of town, I found myself taking care of it — which amounted to dropping the occasional live rat into its cage and letting nature take its violent course. Fascinating creatures….

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:26:43 +0000

“Another well thought out post by Carl. What could science learn from it’s movement? Could it build/create newer forms of transport using the sampe principles?”

Technically, you could argue that a tank works by the same principle since they depend on the interaction between the tank’s tread and the surface. It’s why tanks tend to move slower on sandy surfaces like in deserts.

By: johnk

johnk — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:04:36 +0000

Carl, snakes aren’t slippery. Source: 5 years of graduate school spending many many hours handling garter snakes and watching their sexual and prey trailing behavior.

Their locomotion is amazing. They’re also good at balancing.

By: Claire C Smith

Claire C Smith — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:15:35 +0000

Another well thought out post by Carl. What could science learn from it’s movement? Could it build/create newer forms of transport using the sampe principles?

Claire

By: QuinnO

QuinnO — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:44:18 +0000

Interesting article, beautiful pics and vids. Awesome.

By: QUASAR

QUASAR — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:18:00 +0000

Nice looking specimens!