GIzmodo: When it comes to naming the world’s fastest creature, it’s tempting to think of peregrine falcons, cheetahs, or marlins, but as researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology are apt to point out, we mustn’t forget Spirostomum ambiguum—a worm-like creature that reaches breakneck speeds through rapid shrinkage.
Spirostomum ambiguum is a single-celled protozoan that’s often found in lakes and ponds, and it typically moves around by using tiny cells called cilia. But when S. ambiguum is startled, the normally four-millimeter-long protozoan contracts its worm-like body with lightning speed, reducing the length of its body by more than 60 percent. It performs this rapid rate of shrinkage in just a fraction of a second; its transformation into a football-like object looks practically instantaneous to the human eye.Researchers at Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering would very much like to solve this mystery, and a four-year research grant recently received from the National Science Foundation will surely help. It may sound quite esoteric to study the impossibly quick movements of such a tiny creature, but insights in this area could lead to advanced robotics and nanotechnology. Nature has clearly found a way—scientists just have to figure out the details.
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