Insect Ninjas

May 2, 2016

Insect Ninjas Humans have to train for decades and build complicated gadgets to achieve the super fighting ability of the legendary ninja. Insects, on the other hand, have it way easier, with species being born with incredible ninja abilities. It turns out that insects would make way better ninjas than humans ever will. Humans worked long and hard to develop the incredibly tough Kevlar material, which is able to withstand speeding bullets. However, compared to spider silk, Kevlar is as durable as flimsy tissue. Spider silk is three times tougher than Kevlar and five times stronger than steel. That's pretty amazing when you realize the stuff comes from a spider's stomach. The cyclical cicadas are masters of mathematics. They practice extreme patience by developing slowly underground for either 13 or 17 years. When they emerge they appear by the millions, bursting forth simultaneously to quickly overwhelm humans and animals alike with their sheer numbers and reproducing before we can manage to catch our breath. This ability to wait for so long to emerge and somehow sync up their extremely long life cycles has prevented the evolution of a natural predator that can live off eating these clever bugs. They emerge too infrequently and in such large numbers that no animal could survive solely off of them. What's more, they emerge in intervals of prime numbers, making them even more elusive. What do you think of these insect ninjas? Do you think humans could ever match these skills?