Subscribe to newsletter

UrbanObserver

https://demo.afthemes.com/newsphere/fashion/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/04/cropped-af-themes-main-dark.png

Always Active
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

No cookies to display.

Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.

No cookies to display.

Monday, March 3, 2025

Top 5 This Week

Related Posts

Why penguin can’t fly

Scientists say they have found an answer to why the penguin is unable to fly.

Researchers believe that the bird’s underwater prowess may have cost it its ability to fly.

By looking at seabirds closely related to the penguin, scientists confirmed that a wing that is good for flying cannot also be good for diving and swimming.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor John Speakman, from the Scottish University of Aberdeen and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “Like many people, I’ve always been interested in penguins, and seeing them do these phenomenal marches across the ice, I’ve often thought: <<Why don’t they just fly?>>

“And it’s really great to be involved in the group of people that have solved it.”

There are several long-standing theories about why birds cannot fly.

Researchers believe that the penguin's underwater prowess may have cost it its ability to fly
Researchers believe that the penguin’s underwater prowess may have cost it its ability to fly

One idea is that some species became flightless because of a lack of predators on the ground.

“The other idea is a <<biomechanical hypothesis>>,” explained Prof. John Speakman.

“When the bird is flying and diving it has to use its wings to do two different things. The biomechanical hypothesis is that you cannot build a wing that is good at doing both.”

To investigate, the researchers looked at a close relative of the penguin: the guillemot.

This black-and-white seabird not only looks a lot like a penguin, it can swim nearly as well. But unlike the penguin it can fly.

The researchers analyzed the amount of energy that the bird was using.

They found that it could dive with relative ease, but while flying was much more tiring for the guillemot.

Prof. John Speakman said: “The energy costs are very very high. These birds have these very short wings and they have to beat them at an incredible speed to stay in the air. It is exhausting for them.”

The researchers believe that the guillemot is using so much energy, it is only just able to keep itself aloft.

They said that the bird represented a tipping point between seabirds that are able to both fly and swim, and those that are flightless.

In the past, they suggest, the penguin would have faced an evolutionary trade off between staying airborne or having agility beneath the waves.

Prof. John Speakman explained: “Basically the hypothesis is that as the wings became more and more efficient for them to dive, they became less and less efficient for them to fly.

“At some point it became so <<expensive>> for them to fly, that it was better to give up flying all together and make the wings into small flippers.”

James J. Williams
James J. Williams
James is a professor in Science. His writing skills brought him to BelleNews. He enjoys writing articles for the Science and Technology category. James often finds himself reading about the latest gadgets as the topic is very appealing to him. He likes reading and listening to classical music.

Popular Articles