Jaws, a henchman in two James Bond films, can viciously bite into almost all things (famously including sharks), using his stainless steel teeth. However, he is no match for Odontomachus bauri -- the trap-jaw ant. Its jaw movements are so dizzyingly fast that, in order to record it, your camera should be fast enough to capture some 250,000 frames per second. This, incidentally, is almost 10,000 times faster than the speeds at which movies are usually shot. Biologist Sheila Patek said: "This is really by far and away the fastest recorded animal limb movement". Falcons can put up a speed of 300 mph, whereas the horn-like jaws of the ant snap-shut at a speed of only up to 145 mph. But it is 2,300 times faster than a blink of the eye; the jaws exert forces 300 to 500 times the owner's body weight; and they accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity. Its impact on the ant itself is spectacular: the biter is hurled 3 inches into the air and 8 1/2 inches away. To compute its athletic equivalent, imagine a 5’6" tall long-jumper clearing 44 feet, soaring to a height of 132 feet in the air. Another feat is that the trap-jaw ants have evolved to use their bite force as a means to suddenly take off at will -- to escape from predators. They can propel themselves skyward by biting the hard ground. And when so many of them do that at the same time, it creates a real popcorn effect.
1. Biblical themes
Isaac Asimov was an atheist who in particular couldn’t stand superstition tagged as religion, but he was happy about his Jewish heritage and his bibliography includes two famous volumes on bible themes. One is ‘Asimov’s’ Guide to the Bible’. Which Biblical character inspired the other work?
2. Fashion’s bad boy
In a sense, Jean-Paul Gaultier is fashion’s “enfant terrible”. He shocked the world with his exhibitions of older men, full-figured women and weirdly tattooed models, and played with traditional gender roles in fashion shows. Who did especially mention the bra that Gaultier designed for men?
3. Reverse diagonal
By default, soccer referees run diagonally from the southeast quadrant to the northwest quadrant (“running a left” or “standard diagonal”). Its opposite is “running a right” or “reverse diagonal”. What’s the system called, and who is credited with its implementation as a standard practice?
4. Recurring theme
Sigmund Freud never claimed he understood the niceties of literature, but one of his most brilliant works is about Fyodor Dostoevsky. Freud connected a neurological disorder that had troubled the great Russian author to one of the recurring themes in his novels. What are these respectively?
5. Distinguishing faces
Six-month-old babies can distinguish between individual monkeys, but they lose the ability three months later. This happens gradually when they “keys in” on human faces, as the faces of other animals become less relevant in social contexts. What is it known as, and who made the discovery?
6. Novelist inspired
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) studied and illustrated insect metamorphosis at a time when insects were deemed “vile and disgusting”. David Attenborough placed her among the most significant figures in the field. The entomological forays of which modern novelist was inspired by her?
7. Cows and women
A 2003 campaign put animal liberation and women’s liberation in one pack -- a move against using cows as living protein factories through genetic modification. One billboard featured a naked woman standing on all fours, with its four breasts attached to a milking machine. Who designed it?
8. Ah, Most people!
American poet e.e. cummings sharply distinguished between “most people” and those who really understand poetry, but a Chinese proverb prevails: “three men make a tiger”. If many believe so, it is so. “Yes, 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong”. What’s this fallacious argument called in logic?
9. Double feedback
This physicist’s approach to an idea was to present it to a few friends and demand that they immediately tell him what’s wrong with it. If no fault was identified, he would present it to his antagonists and ask them to do the same. As a result he “never published a wrong result”. Who was it?
ANSWERS: 1. Ruth inspired 'The Story of Ruth' 2. Simon Mills in the article "Boys Won't Be Girls" 3. Diagonal system of control / Sir Stanley Rous (former FIFA President) 4. Epilepsy and patricide (killing the father) 5. Child psychologist Charles Nelson / Cognitive narrowing 6. Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov 7. Singer Alannah Currie (born in New Zealand and trained as a journalist) 8. Argumentum ad populum ("appeal to the people") 9. Luis Walter Alvarez (Nobel Winner, 1968)