Gwênlyn
Water striders
Wouldn't you like to be able to walk on water, even to run on it to the other side of a lake?
While I was taking pictures of the rapids, my daughter called me, all excited. She had just spotted these water striders between some rocks, where the water flowed slowly.
I made a video clip of the striders slowly floating backwards with the current, then skipping ahead a few "paces", almost precisely back to their previous spot, only to drift back again, run forward again, etc.
Incidentally, if you want to walk on water, all you have to do is lose a lot of weight and grow a few legs with special structures that trap air bubbles under them. A neat trick to maximize the area over which the weight is spread. The wikipedia page on Gerridae has additional fun details.
Water striders
Wouldn't you like to be able to walk on water, even to run on it to the other side of a lake?
While I was taking pictures of the rapids, my daughter called me, all excited. She had just spotted these water striders between some rocks, where the water flowed slowly.
I made a video clip of the striders slowly floating backwards with the current, then skipping ahead a few "paces", almost precisely back to their previous spot, only to drift back again, run forward again, etc.
Incidentally, if you want to walk on water, all you have to do is lose a lot of weight and grow a few legs with special structures that trap air bubbles under them. A neat trick to maximize the area over which the weight is spread. The wikipedia page on Gerridae has additional fun details.