Using robotic and animal models, researchers have shown that some dinosaurs were already flapping their rudimentary wings as a side effect of running, prior to evolving the ability to fly. The finding ...

Insects are thought to use specific chest muscles to actively open and close their wings. However, high-speed imaging reveals that rhinoceros beetles flap their hindwings to deploy them for flight, ...

Tiny drones could one day crawl through collapsed buildings to help find survivors after earthquakes. These micro-robots, ...

In the future, tiny air vehicles may be able to fly through cracks in concrete to search for earthquake victims, explore a contaminated building or conduct surveillance missions for the military. But ...

Jerry Seinfeld launched his career with Bee Movie, an insect-themed animated feature that took the world by storm in 2007. It posed the quandary – that supposedly, according to all known laws of ...

(Nanowerk News) Engineers have long sought to unlock the secrets behind insects' uncanny flight abilities and agility in hopes of creating a new class of tiny yet capable flying robots. These flapping ...

Bio-inspired wind sensing using strain sensors on flexible wings could revolutionize robotic flight control strategy. Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo have developed a method to detect wind ...

One of the biggest debates in paleontology is how avian animals began to fly. The two major competing ideas are the descriptively named “ground-upward origin” hypothesis and the “trees-down scenario.” ...

In-air measurements of northern bald ibises flying in a V formation show that the birds conform to predictions for saving energy by regulating their relative body position and synchronizing their ...

Justin Webster receives funding from NSF-DMS. With the car windows down on the first warm day of spring, the urge is unshakable. You extend your arm into the wind, tracing the city skyline in a ...