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Come Up for Air? Not These Insects, Which Carry a Bubble as a Lung
To swim underwater, hundreds of species of insects like the water boatman bring along their own air bubbles.
What is even more remarkable is that the air bubbles automatically refill with oxygen, allowing the bugs to swim indefinitely without coming to the surface. Some insects even hibernate underwater all winter.
“It turns out this bubble functions as an external lung,” said John W. M. Bush, an associate professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of a paper describing the mechanics of the air bubbles in the Aug. 10 issue of The Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
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