Rigorous science in playful comics: The experiments of a curiosity-driven scientist

How does the glassy sharpshooter, a close insect cousin of the cicada, urinate?

In his backyard in Atlanta, Saad Bhamla, professor of chemical and biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, observed the insect’s behaviour with great interest.

The lightweight insect urinates in droplets, which it super-propels into the distance – a high-speed camera revealed that the bead of urine travels at over 40 times the cheetah’s acceleration, Bhamla’s research into the insect’s urine expulsion behavior could someday aid in the design of a more efficient water-ejector system for smartwatches to protect the electronics within – Bhamla’s comic based on his own 2023 research paper tells us.

For over a decade now, driven by sheer curiosity, Bhamla and his research group have been studying the behaviour of a variety of living organisms.

“In our lab, when we see amazing things like slingshot spiders and wriggling worm blobs, we can’t help but ask: HOW? How do organisms do that? What is the physics behind it? What extraordinary discoveries or inventions can be made using the same biological principles?” it says on his website.

Bhamla has an impressive record of publishing in prestigious scientific journals – Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and Current Biology. He also takes the time to collaborate with professional science illustrators and...

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