Have you ever found yourself sitting in your favorite overstuffed armchair and finding your coffee just out of reach? In situations like this, a Jedi could easily deflect a blaster bolt or recover a lost lightsaber. I often wish I could use the “Force”, a mythical energy field used to bring back . In the real world, humans cannot use telekinesis to manipulate objects. But some animals do It uses natural electric fields to attract and repel objects.

The lowercase f “force” exerted by the animal kingdom is caused by friction between two objects, causing one object to lose electrons and the other to gain electrons. static electricity. Since electrons are negatively charged, objects that have lost electrons accumulate a positive charge, and objects that have gained electrons accumulate a negative charge. of electrostatic force Charged objects repel those with the same charge and attract those with the opposite charge. When you rub a balloon against your head, the friction causes the balloon to become negatively charged and your hair to become positively charged, causing your hair to stand on end.

like the force star wars The universe and animals use electrostatic force for both good and evil. In “Light Side” bee, bumblebeeand hummingbird Static electricity builds up as the wing moves through the air. These pollinators use electrostatic forces to transport pollen to and from flowers, supporting plant reproduction and biodiversity. On the “dark side” (at least from the prey's point of view!), predators like orb spiders use electrostatic forces to trap prey in a nestparasites such as mites and mites use it to connect to host.

Scientists suspect that other winged animals use “light-side” electrostatic forces to aid pollination, but it is unclear how widespread this phenomenon is in nature. Not yet. Two biologists from the University of Bristol investigated whether butterflies and moths are members of the order Lepidoptera I did electrostatic pollination. Scientists believe that moths wide range of pollinatorsHowever, opinions are divided as to whether butterflies pollinate plants.

The researchers collected wild butterflies and moths from across the UK and Germany, or purchased captive-bred versions. butterflies of the world. They were kept in climate-controlled mesh enclosures that mimicked their natural habitat and fed artificial flowers and pineapple slices filled with a sugar solution.

The researchers hypothesized that because lepidopterans have relatively small wings and flap slowly, they may be less electrically charged than other pollinating insects. To test this, they measured the static electricity of 72 adult peacock butterflies in free flight. They transferred each butterfly to an acrylic box lined with leaves native to its habitat to ensure that the charge the butterflies carried was as close to natural as possible.

Next, the ring-shaped electrode was attached to a device called “Electric Signal” that detects extremely weak currents. picoammeter. They placed a ring electrode next to the box's exit hole and used a picoammeter to record the charge on each butterfly as it flew out of the hole and passed through the electrode. They found that peacock butterflies have an average charge of about +50 picocoulombs. This is actually more than any other pollinating insect.

The researchers then tested whether the insects' habitat and ecology influenced their static electricity. They used similar techniques to measure charges in four additional species of butterflies and six species of moths across five continents, different climates, and feeding behaviors. They found that all 197 individuals tested carried enough electrical charge to displace pollen grains from several millimeters away. However, the strength and polarity (whether it was positive or negative) depended on the insect's habitat and ecological niche. For example, tropical species are more likely to be negatively charged than temperate species, and nocturnal foragers are more likely to be negatively charged than daytime foragers.

The researchers concluded that butterflies are actually good at pollination. The researchers speculated that the high charge may improve the insect's “light side” ability to attract pollen and sense electric fields around nectar-containing flowers. However, carrying a high charge also has its drawbacks, as highly charged insects are more vulnerable to “dark side” predators and parasites. They suggested that tropical and nocturnal Lepidoptera may be negatively charged. detect predatorsare more active in warm weather and at night. May the electrostatic forces be with them!

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