Nature creates round objects all the time (stones in a river, a hedgehog in a ball,…), but the principle of an axle is not found as far as I know.
Nature creates round objects all the time (stones in a river, a hedgehog in a ball,…), but the principle of an axle is not found as far as I know.
yeah thanks for the article! rotating bacterial flagella is what came to my mind as well, but it’s microscopically small (i think the flagella is a single macro-molecule?) so i’m not sure whether to include it in the list of (macroscopic) “mechanical rotation”… it’s more like biochemical mechanical rotation.
if we go for biochemical mechanical rotation, there’s more: ATP-Synthase is a molecule that sits in cell membranes and that rotates as well each time that a proton passes through it.
I think the bivalve style is the more interesting case—it’s like their guts have a built-in mortar-and-pestle.