Mechanical gears in jumping insects

Previously believed to be only man-made, a natural example of a functioning gear mechanism has been discovered in a common insect - the plant-hopper Issus - showing that evolution developed interlocking cogs long before we did.

Professor Malcolm Burrows talks about finding the bugs that led to the science, and working with artists Elizabeth Hobbs and Emily Tracy and members of the community in the London borough of Hackney to produce the film 'Waterfolk'.

For more information about the natural gear system, visit http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/functioning-mechanical-gears-seen-in-nature-for-the-first-time

For more information about the Waterfolk project, visit http://www.floatingcinema.info/events/water-folk.1